Prepare a release

Preparing a release executes the following steps:

• Check that there's no uncommitted changes in the sources
• Check that there's no SNAPSHOT dependencies
• Change the version in the poms from x-SNAPSHOT to a new version (you will be prompted for the versions to use)
• Transform the SCM information in the POM to the final destination of the tag
• Run the project tests against the modified POMs to confirm everything is in working order
• Commit the change of versions
• Tag the code in the SCM with a version name (this will be prompted for)
• Bump the version in the poms to a new value y-SNAPSHOT (these values are prompted also)
• Commit the change of versions

To execute this step, run:

mvn release:prepare

Note: If an error occurs, or the process is cancelled, then running this will pick up from where the last one left off from. If you wish to start again, use:

mvn release:prepare -Dresume=false

Alternatively, you can use:

mvn release:clean release:prepare

Note that if any changes have been made to your source files they might need to be reverted before you restart the prepare process.

Perform a release

Performing a release does the following:

• Checkout from an SCM URL with optional tag
• Run the predefined maven goals to release the project (by default, deploy site-deploy)

To execute this step, run:

mvn release:perform

This relies on release.properties being present from a previous release. If this is not the case, you need to give the goal the name of the URL and optional tag to perform the release from. For example:

mvn release:perform -DconnectionUrl=scm:svn:https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/maven/plugins/tags/maven-release-plugin-2.0

After the release is complete, the release.properties and other release files will be removed from the checkout.