Preserve property references when using release:prepare goal with autoResolveSnapshots parameter

[rcmul]

New feature, improvement proposal

I have property references to snapshot dependencies in my project

...
<properties>
  <dep.version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</dep.version>
</properties> 
...
<dependency>
  <groupId>dep</groupId>
  <artifactId>dep1</artifactId>
  <version>${dep.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>dep</groupId>
  <artifactId>dep2</artifactId>
  <version>${dep.version}</version>
</dependency>
...

When I run the release:prepare goal with the autoResolveSnapshots parameter set, the plugin correctly infers that the property referenced in the dependency section is a snapshot that needs to be resolved, but it removes the references and makes inline updates for each dependency while leaving the now-unreferenced property unchanged.

...
<properties>
  <dep.version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</dep.version>
</properties>
...
<dependency>
  <groupId>dep</groupId>
  <artifactId>dep1</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>dep</groupId>
  <artifactId>dep2</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>
...

Can the autoResolveSnapshots functionality be changed so that property references are preserved during resolution?

[HarshMehta112]

Hi @hboutemy @slawekjaranowski

I think autoResolveSnapshots could be improved to preserve property references when resolving snapshot dependencies. Currently, when a dependency version is a property expression (e.g. ${dep.version}), the resolution inlines the resolved version onto each dependency and leaves the property stale, which loses the single source of truth and stamps a SNAPSHOT value into the released POM. I think updating the property value once and keeping the ${dep.version} reference would better fit how these projects are structured.

A minimal approach would route the snapshot-resolution path through the existing property-rewriting logic, with a fallback to inline when the property can't be rewritten locally (e.g. inherited from a parent), so a snapshot can never leak into the release:

  // autoResolveSnapshots: version given as ${property}
  String property = MavenExpression.extractPropertyFromExpression(rawVersion);
  boolean rewritten = false;
  if (property != null
          && !property.startsWith("project.")
          && !property.startsWith("pom.")
          && !"version".equals(property)) {
      // reuse the same path the release-version flow uses:
      // updates the property in place, dedupes deps sharing it, detects conflicts
      rewritten = rewritePropertyUsedInVersionExpression(
              projectId, key, rawVersion, resolvedSnapshotVersion,
              originalVersion, property, properties, result, releaseDescriptor);
  }
  if (!rewritten) {
      // property not locally rewritable -> inline to avoid leaking a snapshot
      artifact.setVersion(resolvedSnapshotVersion);
  }

Result:

  <properties><dep.version>1.0.0</dep.version></properties>   <!-- updated once -->
  <dependency>...<version>${dep.version}</version></dependency>   <!-- preserved -->
  <dependency>...<version>${dep.version}</version></dependency>   <!-- preserved -->

If this approach aligns with the project direction, I'm happy to refine or extend it as needed. As I'm still new to contributing, feedback is welcome!