Step by step of how to perform a Release via Maven

This document is intended to be kept up to date by the DSpace Release Managers. It details the steps necessary to perform snapshot and official releases of DSpace and supporting Modules.

Table of Contents

For lack of a better place at this time, here's some useful pages on Sonatype which detail the Sonatype Maven Release Process:

Release Numbering Convention

As of 2012 (DSpace 3.0), DSpace has moved to a new release numbering scheme/format. Release numbers will now only consist of two numbers.

Release Numbering Scheme: [major].[minor] (e.g. 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 4.0)

Major Releases: incrementing the first number ('major') will represent a new MAJOR release of DSpace. A major release may include any or all of the following: new features, system improvements, architectural changes, bug fixes. All major releases end in ".0", so "3.0", "4.0", and "5.0" would all represent major releases.
Minor (Bug-Fix) Releases: incrementing the second number ('minor') will represent a new MINOR release of DSpace. A minor release will only include bug fixes to an existing major release. For example, "3.1" and "3.2" would represent two minor releases which only include bug fixes to the "3.0" major release..

For more information see DSpace Release Numbering Scheme and the initial DSpace 3.0 Announcement

The one exception is that the Language Packs (dspace-api-lang and dspace-xmlui-lang) use the numbering convention [major].[minor].[sequence-number] (e.g. 3.0.0, 3.0.1, 3.1.0, etc.). This allows us to release new versions of the language packs more frequently than normal DSpace releases, as needed.

Prerequisites

Verify Release Privileges

To perform a release, you must have all of the following:

Write access to the DSpace GitHub repository hosted at https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace. (All Committers should already have this, obviously)
Write access to the org.dspace groupId in the snapshot and staging repositories hosted at oss.sonatype.org. If you don't already have this, you will need to:
- Sign up for a Sonatype JIRA account. This account will also serve as your login to the Sonatype OSS system. (If you already have a Sonatype account, you can skip this step)
- Ask a Committer with release privileges (e.g. a previous release manager) to request that your Sonatype account be given release privileges to the "org.dspace" GroupID. This request should be submitted via the Sonatype JIRA system in the Open Source Project Repository Hosting project.
- Once Sonatype gives you the proper authorization, you should be able to login to the Sonatype OSS system using the same login/password you setup in Sonatype JIRA. You should also have access to publish new releases to the "org.dspace" GroupID.
- The full details of signing up and getting access to Sonatype are also posted online here: Sonatype Maven Repository Usage Guide
You mustgenerate and publish your own personal Code Signing Key (required by Sonatype). Here are two sites that give hints on how to do that:
- Creating a Code Signing Key
- How to Generate PGP Signatures with Maven (required for all Sonatype releases)
- Make sure to publish your Key file to hkp://pgp.mit.edu, as this is the Key Server Sonatype uses for verification:
  - (e.g.) gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --send-keys [yourKeyID]
    - [yourKeyId] can be found by running the following command and copying the alpha-numeric string after the "/" on the "pub" line
      - gpg --list-keys
  - You can see if your key is already on that Key Server by visiting http://pgp.mit.edu and searching on your name

Update Maven settings.xml

DSpace's root pom.xml already has the correct staging and snapshot repositories listed in the OSS parent's '<distributionManagement>' section. In order to deploy, you will need to add your Sonatype OSS username and password to your local ~/.m2/settings.xml file:

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                      http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
  <servers>
    <!--Login info for Sonatype SnapShot repository-->
    <server>
      <id>sonatype-nexus-snapshots</id>
      <username>YourSonatypeUsername</username>
      <password>YourSonatypePassword</password>
    </server>
    <!--Login info for Sonatype Staging/Release repository-->
    <server>
      <id>sonatype-nexus-staging</id>
      <username>YourSonatypeUsername</username>
      <password>YourSonatypePassword</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

If you don't yet have a ~/.m2/settings.xml file, you should create one, and copy the full contents above (obviously make sure to put in your username and password).

Use Maven 2.2.1 or above

Make sure you're using a recent version of Maven. As of this writing, both Maven 2.2.1 and Maven 3 were known to work.

In particular, avoid using either Maven 2.1.0 or 2.2.0 as both have know issues with the Sonatype Release Process. Maven 2.2.0 has a serious bug that affects deployments: MNG-4235. Maven 2.1.0 also is problematic, as it produces improper GPG signatures.

For more information see the Prerequisites section of the Sonatype Maven Repository Usage Guide

Making a Snapshot Release (e.g. 'dspace-x.y-SNAPSHOT')

One Step Process

From a clean, up-to-date copy of master/branch, run the following command:

mvn clean javadoc:jar source:jar deploy

You will have to enter in your GPG passphrase (which you established when you created your Code Signing Key).

The snapshot will be immediately available in the public Sonatype repository: http://oss.sonatype.org/content/groups/public

Releasing a Single Module/Project

If you'd like to release a Snapshot Release of that module, follow the instructions at: Making a Snapshot Release (e.g. 'dspace-x.y-SNAPSHOT')
If you'd like to tag & release a new version of that module, use the module instructions at: Release DSpace Language Packs (I18N) Modules (NOTE: These instructions obviously have some specific notes around how the Language Packs modules are versioned. You obviously don't need to follow those versioning notes. Individual modules may have their own version schemes)

Making an Official Release (e.g. 'dspace-x.y' or 'dspace-x.y-rc1')

These same steps are also covered in the Sonatype Maven Repository Usage Guide

Release DSpace Language Packs (I18N) Modules

If possible, you should release the DSpace Language Packs (i18n modules) before the main release. Oftentimes, it's best to release these one or two days prior to the DSpace release (that way they've already propagated out to the Maven repository).

At the moment the i18n modules are maintained in two separate GitHub projects. There are currently two i18n modules you will need to release:

Note that the version numbering convention for Language Packs is always the same as the current DSpace release, with an additional .[sequence-number]. For example, the i18n modules for the 1.8.0 release are numbered as follows: 1.8.0.0, 1.8.0.1, etc. However, for 3.0, the i18n modules will be numbered as follows: 3.0.0, 3.0.1, etc.

For each module, perform the full release steps that follow. To save space, the steps are only listed for one of the modules (but don't forget to run it for both language packs): WARNING: INSTRUCTIONS NEED UPDATE FOR GITHUB!

Checkout Language Pack Module: svn co https://scm.dspace.org/svn/repo/modules/dspace-api-lang/trunk dspace-api-lang
Do a Dry Run: mvn release:prepare -DdryRun=true
Tag and Increment Version: mvn release:prepare -Dresume=false
- Make sure to assign a version number of the format: [major].[minor].[sequence-number] (e.g. 3.0.0, 3.0.1, etc for 3.0 releases of language packs)
Deploy Artifacts to Staging in Sonatype: mvn release:perform
Verify and Release Staged Artifacts in Sonatype (see instructions at link)

Final Commits & Preparation

Double Check Language Packs' Version Ranges

Once the Language Packs are released, you may need to modify the DSpace root pom.xml (https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/master/pom.xml) to reference the new version of the Language Packs. This should be similar to the following:

If possible, you'd only want to commit this after the i18n modules are available in the Maven Repository. But, if you are in a rush, you can commit this change earlier (though be warned that this will break the build process for anyone who hasn't manually installed the i18n modules to his/her local ~/.m2/ directory).

In the main pom.xml, provide the proper version range for each language pack. In the below example, we are saying to use any language pack version which is at least version 3.0.0, but is less than version 4.0.0:

<!-- DSpace Localization Packages -->
<dependency>
   <groupId>org.dspace</groupId>
   <artifactId>dspace-api-lang</artifactId>
   <version>[3.0.0,4.0.0)</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
   <groupId>org.dspace</groupId>
   <artifactId>dspace-xmlui-lang</artifactId>
   <version>[3.0.0,4.0.0)</version>
   <type>war</type>
</dependency>

Ensure Documentation is Updated Appropriately

Hopefully, you've already been talking with others about getting Documentation updated!

You should also double check that the following "main pages" are updated in the Documentation:

Preface- Should contain a very basic overview of the Release. Make sure the Release number is updated here!
- NOTE: For Subminor releases (bug-fix-only releases), you may want to leave all information about the previous major release, and just enhance the content to state that this was a bug-fix release, and list any new contributors, etc.
Installation - Obviously make sure the Installation Documentation is updated for this Release
Upgrading a DSpace Installation - Same for the Upgrade Documentation, make sure it's up to date

History- Make sure the online History for this latest Release is included. You should be able to just edit the page, copy the fancy code that generated the history for another release, and update the version numbers. For example, copy the previous release's History section and change the release numbers as follows:

You'll notice all the release History is generated via the jiraissue plugin. In the url argument for that plugin, you should find the DSpace version number embedded in the querystring like: "... AND+fixVersion+%3D+%221.7.0%22 ..." If you look closely, you'll see the 'fixVersion' is set to "1.7.0" in that search string. All you should need to do is update that version number!

Also make sure to update the title argument for that jiraissueplugin to list the proper version number information

Obviously, this is just a brief reminder of important areas of Documentation which always require updates. There's surely other areas, like Configuration section, which will require some updates for your release.

Ensure PDF version of Wiki Documentation is in GitHub

Make sure the latest Wiki-based Documentation has been exported as PDF and committed to [dspace-src]/dspace/docs/ in GitHub.

See this DSpace documentation management guide: How To Export Downloadable Docs from Wiki

Double Check Contents of all README (and similar) files in GitHub

Make sure that the contents of all README, LICENSE, LICENSES_THIRD_PARTY, NOTICE files are up-to-date in GitHub. These files reside in [dspace-src]. If anything is out-of-date, make sure to update it and commit the proper changes before continuing.

Pay close attention to the "LICENSES_THIRD_PARTY" file. You should attempt to determine if any third-party dependencies were added or removed and update their licensing information in this file. Information on the Maven commands that may come in handy when updating this file can be found in the Notes at the end of the "LICENSES_THIRD_PARTY" file.

Checkout Master or Branch to Release

Checkout a copy of the to-be-release version either from a branch or master. For example:

git clone git@github.com:DSpace/DSpace.git ~/dspace-release
git checkout master

Do a Dry Run

This step is not required, but performs a useful sanity check without committing any changes. From your clean, up-to-date copy of master/branch, run the following command (from [dspace-src]):

mvn release:prepare -DdryRun=true

You will have to enter in your GPG passphrase (which you established when you created your Code Signing Key).

If you notice an issue or an error occurs, you can re-run the Dry Run using the following command:

mvn release:prepare -DdryRun=true -Dresume=false

Tag and Increment Version

This step will set the version declared in the project's pom.xml files, commit the changes to master/branch, tag the release, and finally, check in the master/branch change that increments the next development version (e.g. x.y-SNAPSHOT) in the pom.xml files.

mvn release:prepare -Dresume=false

(Optionally, you may also include the parameters -Dusername=YourGitHubUsername -Dpassword=YourGitHubPassword at the end of the above command, though I've not found these to be necessary)

The above command will ask you three basic questions. Here are sample answers for DSpace 3.0:

"What is the release version for: XXX" : 3.0

This is the release # to put in the final tagged Maven POMs. E.g. for 3.0 Release Candidate #1 it would look like: "3.0-rc1"

"What is SCM release tag or label for: XXXX" : dspace-3.0

This is the tag name in GitHub. E.g. for 3.0 Release Candidate #1 it would look like: "dspace-3.0-rc1")

"What is the new development version for: XXXX" : 3.1-SNAPSHOT

This is the next release number which all POMs should be incremented to on "master". E.g. 3.0 for Release Candidate #1 it would look like: "3.0-rc2-SNAPSHOT"

You will also have to enter in your GPG passphrase (which you established when you created your Code Signing Key).

The mvn release:prepare command may fail to compile part way through the process, complaining that an internal project dependency is not met. This seems to only occur using Maven 2. If this occurs, don't worry. Just run the following:

mvn install
mvn release:prepare

If backing out of this step is needed for any reason, the following will restore the github repository and your working copy to the state it was previously in:

mvn release:rollback
Now delete the tag in GitHub (local & remote)
- git tag -d dspace-x.y
- git push origin :refs/tags/dspace-x.y

Deploy Artifacts to Staging in Sonatype

This step will sign, checksum, and push all release artifacts (including javadocs and sources) to the Sonatype staging repository (http://oss.sonatype.org/). Run the following:

mvn release:perform

You should be prompted by Maven to specify your GPG passphrase (which you established when you created your Code Signing Key). If you run into any issues, it's possible to specify your GPG key and passphrase as arguments to the above command (e.g. -Darguments="-Dgpg.keyname=YourKeyId -Dgpg.passphrase=YourKeyPassword")

If any errors or problems occur during the deploy, you can re-run mvn release:perform safely after fixing those issues (re-running it will just overwrite existing staged contents).

Verify and Release Staged Artifacts in Sonatype

For screenshots and more details on this step, visit the Sonatype Repository Usage Guide's section on Releasing your artifacts

Login to http://oss.sonatype.org/
Click "Staging Repositories" in the left column, then select the checkbox next to the staged repository on the right. The contents of it will open up at the bottom of the page.
With the staged repository still selected, click the "Close" button at the top.

Download and test that the artifacts in staging are exactly as they should be once deployed to central.

If anything is incorrect, select the staged repository and select "Drop". After the problem is resolved, you can re-deploy the artifacts to staging and verify them again. To re-deploy an already-tagged release:
mvn release:perform -Dtag=dspace-x.y -DconnectionUrl=scm:git:git@github.com:DSpace/DSpace.git -Darguments="-Dgpg.keyname=YourKeyId -Dgpg.passphrase=YourKeyPassword"

If everything looks good, select the repository and select "Release". The artifacts should be synced to Maven central (http://repo2.maven.org/maven2/org/dspace/) within an hour.
Once you select "Release", there is no way to "undo" the release. If any major issues are found, you'll have to increment the version number and perform a new bug-fix release.

Create the Distribution Zips for SourceForge

The previous actions will have checked out the release tag into the target directory under [dspace-src]/target/checkout. Navigate to that directory and execute the creation of the distributions using the following command. This will create two zip, bzip and gzipped files in the target directory. One set of files is the "binary" release, and the other set is the source release.

(Note: If you've already removed the target/checkout directory, you can also checkout a fresh copy of the newly tagged version and run this command from the DSpace parent directory.)

localhost$ cd target/checkout
 localhost$ mvn package -Pdistributions
 [INFO] Scanning for projects...
 [INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [INFO] Building DSpace Parent Project
 [INFO]    task-segment: [package]
 [INFO] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [INFO] [site:attach-descriptor]
 [INFO] [assembly:single -(execution. default-)]
 [INFO] Building zip: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-release.zip
 [INFO] Building tar: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-release.tar.gz
 [INFO] Building tar: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-release.tar.bz2
 [INFO] Building zip: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-src-release.zip
 [INFO] Building tar: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-src-release.tar.gz
 [INFO] Building tar: .../target/dspace-1.8.0-src-release.tar.bz2
 [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
 [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upload to SourceForge

Upload both the source and binary releases to Sourceforge.net. You can either upload them via the web interface, or copy them over via scp or other command line tools. If you want to copy the files from command line, follow the directions found here: http://apps.sourceforge.net/trac/sourceforge/wiki/File%20management%20service

Using scp to copy to the "DSpace Stable" file directory: (example for 1.8.0 final)
(NOTE: You will need to first create the 'DSpace Stable/1.8.0' directory via SourceForge's Admin UI)

scp <files> <username>,dspace@frs.sourceforge.net:"/home/frs/project/d/ds/dspace/DSpace\\ Stable/1.8.0/"

Using scp to copy to the "DSpace Release Candidate" file directory: (example for 1.8.0-rc2)
(NOTE: You will need to first create the 'DSpace Release Candidate/1.8.0-rc2' directory via SourceForge's Admin UI)

scp <files> <username>,dspace@frs.sourceforge.net:"/home/frs/project/d/ds/dspace/DSpace\\ Release\\ Candidate/1.8.0-rc2/"

After the Release is Finished

You must wait for all the packages to be available at http://repo2.maven.org/maven2/org/dspace/ before you announce the release. Until the DSpace packages are available in the Maven repository, no one else will be able to build DSpace using Maven.

Add the new contributors to the list: DSpaceContributors
Coordinate Announcements with DuraSpace Staff:
- Announcement on dspace.org, duraspace.org, twitter
- Ensure that the Latest Releasepage on dspace.org is updated.
  - Plus, ask dspace.org admins to upload latest documentation in PDF/HTML format
- Announce on all DSpace mailing lists
- Link announcement on Home of DSpace Wiki, change any version numbers listed on that page.
Update Wiki pages, particularly these pages which refer to the Current and Next Releases:
- CurrentRelease
- Next Release Status
- RoadMap
- NOTE: See DSpace Wiki Style Guide for notes on how to actually edit the above Redirect pages
Also, update the Documentation Wiki area! Specifically:
- All Documentation page -> Has current release info
- Homepage for the current Documentation (e.g. DSpace 1.8 Documentation) -> Has links to download latest version of DSpace
For major releases, create a new branch in GitHub for any upcoming bug-fix releases: (NOTE: BRANCH INSTRUCTIONS NEED UPDATE FOR GITHUB!)
- E.g., after 1.8.0 release, we created a 1.8.x branch for the subsequent 1.8.1 and 1.8.2 releases
- To automatically create a branch, you may be able to use the release:branch command (NOTE: untested, but it should work! once we test it out, this may be the best practice way of creating a branch).
- To manually create a branch, run a command similar to:
  svn copy http://scm.dspace.org/svn/repo/dspace/trunk \ http://scm.dspace.org/svn/repo/dspace/branches/dspace-3_x \ -m "Creating a branch for 3.x bug-fix releases."
  - Then, go back to your Trunk checkout, and make sure to update its version numbers in the pom.xml files by running the following:
    mvn release:update-versions
    (Remember to enter in the next appropriate majorversion number. E.g. After releasing 3.0, Trunk should be updated to "4.0-SNAPSHOT", while the new 3_x branch should be at "3.1-SNAPSHOT")
    - NOTE: the update-versions command doesn't always work perfectly. You will want to try a complete rebuild of DSpace before committing anything, as it sometimes misses updating a few version numbers.
  - You'll also need to ensure that all version numbers and the <scm> section is appropriate in the pom.xml files of your new Branch. Remember, the <scm> configurations should point at the branch, rather than back at Trunk.
For major releases, make sure to create a new DuraSpace BambooProject to auto-build the new branch you created in GitHub.
- Usually, it's easiest to just 'clone' the existing Trunk project, rather than starting from scratch.
- You'll want to name it something similar to "18BRANCH" (for 1.8.x branch).
Updates to JIRA:
- Move any uncompleted issues to the next DSpace version tag in JIRA.
- Ask a JIRA Administrator to close out the release in JIRA (this will ensure no new issues can be added to that release).

Possible Errors you may Encounter

"Could not find model file" error (with language packs)

If you encounter one of these errors when building/packaging DSpace:

FATAL ERROR: "Reason: Could not find the model file '../dspace-xmlui-lang'. for project unknown"

OR

FATAL ERROR: "Reason: Could not find the model file '../dspace-api-lang'. for project unknown"

This is a known bug in Maven. The problem is that you likely have a 'dspace-xmlui-lang' or 'dspace-api-lang' folder at the same level as your [dspace-source] parent folder. Essentially, Maven located them and tried to add them into the build process (which it shouldn't have). The fix is to completely delete the 'dspace-xmlui-lang' and 'dspace-api-lang' folders, and try to rebuild DSpace.