[MRELEASE-933] maven-release-plugin:perform from a tag is broken for Git in version 2.5.3

**[Eric Leventhal Arthen](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=earthen)** opened **[MRELEASE-933](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MRELEASE-933?redirect=false)** and commented

We are also blocked from using `maven-release-plugin:2.5:perform` for Git releases because it no longer passes in the tag name so the "git clone" fails.

This worked correctly in `maven-release-plugin:2.3.2:perform`, with that version we got a command like this:

```
git clone --branch my-base-1.4.6 git@bithub:abcde/fghij.git /home/buildacct/work/5f89075470257ef1/base/target/checkout
```

(Note that the name here is (correctly) a tag name created by release:prepare, even though it is passed to --branch.)

With `maven-release-plugin:2.5:perform` it does not include the actual tag name after "--branch" so the command fails.

```
git clone --branch git@bithub.brightcove.com:abcde/fghij.git /home/buildacct/work/7483cd6cc5ce81ea/target/checkout
[ERROR] The git-clone command failed.
```

We have to downgrade to the older maven-release-plugin, 2.3.2. From the ticket below this also worked in 2.2.1. I have not tried other versions.

Found a description of this problem in SCM-729 in a comment in Feb 2015, but are creating this ticket because the issue is a recently introduced bug and that ticket is a feature request for a different component.

---

**Affects:** 2.5

3 votes, 5 watchers

Start by reproducing maven-release-plugin:perform with Git using version 2.5.3, then compare the clone command with the known-working 2.3.2 behavior. The work is done when the generated Git clone command includes the release tag after --branch and the perform operation succeeds.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.