using maven scm plugin

Question

Is it possible to use the maven scm plugin for tagging releases without having to use the release plugin?

I'm trying to do the following but it doesn't work

Extract from pom file

<scm>
  <connection>scm:git:ssh://myuser@gerrit/tutorial.git</connection>
  <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://myuser@gerrit/tutorial.git</developerConnection>
</scm>

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-scm-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.7</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>tag</goal>
      </goals>
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>

and from command line I do

mvn clean install scm:tag

Maven returns the following error

[INFO] One or more required plugin parameters are invalid/missing for 'scm:tag'

[0] Inside the definition for plugin 'maven-scm-plugin' specify the following:

... VALUE

-OR-

on the command line, specify: '-Dtag=VALUE'

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Trace 
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Error configuring: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-scm-plugin. Reason: Invalid or missing parameters: [Mojo parameter [name: 'tag'; alias: 'null']] for mojo: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-scm-plugin:1.7:tag
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:723)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeStandaloneGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:569)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:539)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:387)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:284)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:180)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:328)
    at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:138)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:362)
    at org.apache.maven.cli.compat.CompatibleMain.main(CompatibleMain.java:60)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
    at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.PluginParameterException: Error configuring: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-scm-plugin. Reason: Invalid or missing parameters: [Mojo parameter [name: 'tag'; alias: 'null']] for mojo: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-scm-plugin:1.7:tag
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.checkRequiredParameters(DefaultPluginManager.java:1117)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.getConfiguredMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:722)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:468)
    at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:694)
    ... 17 more

Solution

http://maven.apache.org/scm/maven-scm-plugin/tag-mojo.html shows you two required parameters. You need to -D them or put them in the pom.