How to get Sourcetree gitflow action to update version in pom.xml

[Jeen Broekstra]

I am trying to get my head around use of git flow inside Sourcetree. However, I'm struggling with the way it deals with (or rather, _doesn't_ deal with) versions in maven pom.xml files.

For some reason, when I use "start a release" from the Sourcetree Git Flow menu, it does not update the version set in the project pom, but just creates a new release branch. In contrast, when i execute `mvn jgitflow:release-start` from the commandline, it does update the pom as I expect it to, so as far as I can tell my project is set up correctly.

What am I overlooking/is there some way to correct this behavior?

This is sourcetree 1.8.1 on Mac OS X 10.9.1, using embedded git-flow by the way.

[Seth · Accepted solution]

In the command you list, it is important to note that maven is not integrated with git. Rather, git has been integrated into maven. SourceTree is a Git client, not a maven client, so when you do gitflow in sourcetree, it is the same as running "git flow release start" at the command line. Your "mvn" command (maven) is a maven command that also runs a git flow command.

Additionally, nvie's gitflow (the one used by SourceTree) does not support hooks, so I can't see any way to emulate mvn's behavior in SourceTree's gitflow. I don't know if you can get sourcetree to use petervanderdoes fork, but if you can, you can make a hook on release start to update pom.xml. You can also join the chorus of people asking SourceTree to switch their embedded gitflow plugin to petervanderdoes, but who knows if/when that'll happen.

You might consider creating a set of Custom Actions that run the mvn jgitflow commands instead of using SourceTree's Gitflow UI, but you'd lose the recognition of your current gitflow state that the UI provides.

[Seth]

If you want to request SourceTree to use the petervanderdoes (AVH) fork, do so at JIRA.