How can I copy the maven artifacts from one repository to another? I create a release and I do not want to publish this release immediately. I want to leave it for some days as "internal" to test it. Later on, when all tests pass, I want to move these artifacts into a public release repository.
maven-stage-plugin is no longer maintained.
The release plugin would build a new release, but I want to use the same artifact, that has already been tested.
it looks to me that you need CI environment which supports different pipelines.
Every commit/push should trigger a deployment on your DEV environment where you can test your application.
Upon tag the CI environment would trigger a different pipeline stage which can 'release' application/library.
The tag effectively snapshots your version and creates a distribution.