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Maven Deploy and Release FAQ

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How to ensure all sub-modules use the same version in a multi-module reactor?

Set the autoVersionSubmodules to true. 

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <autoVersionSubmodules>true</autoVersionSubmodules>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Docs: http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-release-plugin/prepare-mojo.html#autoVersionSubmodules

How to cut a release?

See official documentation; Release guide and plugin documentation 1. Make sure no dependencies or plugins use SNAPSHOT versions. 1. Set up distributionManagement 

<build>
    <extensions>
      <extension>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.wagon</groupId>
        <artifactId>wagon-webdav</artifactId>
        <version>1.0-beta-2</version>
      </extension>
    </extensions>
    <!--necessary due to http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/MRELEASE-271 -->
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
          <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
          <configuration>
            <preparationGoals>clean install</preparationGoals>
          </configuration>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
  </build>

  <distributionManagement>
    <repository>
      <id>libs-releases</id>
      <name>Objectware Internal Release Repository</name>
      <url>dav:${releaseRepoUrl}</url>
    </repository>
    <snapshotRepository>
      <id>libs-snapshots</id>
      <name>Objectware Internal Snapshot Repository</name>
      <url>dav:${snapshotRepoUrl}</url>
    </snapshotRepository>
  </distributionManagement>

  <properties>
    <repoUrl>http://repo.objectware.no/artifactory</repoUrl>
    <releaseRepoUrl>${repoUrl}/libs-releases</releaseRepoUrl>
    <snapshotRepoUrl>${repoUrl}/libs-snapshots</snapshotRepoUrl>
  </properties>
1. Check out a copy of the source code with the protocol used in the scm element and run mvn clean install to make sure you have all dependencies in the local .m2 repository. 1. Do a dry run, to check that everything seems ok: 
mvn release:prepare -DdryRun=true
mvn release:clean
1. Do the actual release ( (!) Your Subversion commandline client version must be 1.6.5 or greater because of this bug.) 
mvn release:prepare
mvn release:perform

What to do when a release fails?

  1. Try reverting changes automatically with mvn release:rollback.

  2. If 1 doesn't work, manual cleanup is needed. Run mvn release:clean first to delete files created by the release-plugin. Next, check the version control system and the maven repo for changes and revert them if necessary.

What do I need to do to get mvn release to work on Windows?

How to cut a release when a dependency has not been released yet?

See http://www.sonatype.com/people/2009/01/best-practices-for-releasing-with-3rd-party-snapshot-dependencies/ for aa thorough description of the different alternatives. This is the same solution, but we have added example commands to illustrate the process.

  1. Change the version (not artifactId or groupId) to something that clearly explains that this is a workaround to be able to perform a release with a dependency on a snapshot. The versions-maven-plugin is useful:

mvn versions:set -DnewVersion=4.0-companyName-r<scmRevisionNumber>

  1. Add authentication information to settings.xml. The id plugins-releases must be added to the servers section with username and password.

  2. Deploy to altDeploymentRepository: 

    mvn deploy -DupdateReleaseInfo=true -DaltDeploymentRepository=plugins-releases::default::http://repo.objectware.no/artifactory/plugins-releases/

How to deploy 3rd party artifacts to a DAV repository?

wagon-webdav extension is required to deploy to a DAV repository. It is therefore necessary to create a temporary pom.xml to able to perform deploy-file.

Temporary pom.xml: 

<project>
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.example</groupId>
   <artifactId>webdav-deploy</artifactId>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
   <version>1</version>
   <name>Webdav Deployment POM</name>

   <build>
      <extensions>
         <extension>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.wagon</groupId>
            <artifactId>wagon-webdav</artifactId>
            <version>1.0-beta-2</version>
         </extension>
      </extensions>
   </build>
</project>

Command: 

mvn deploy:deploy-file -Dfile=myproject-1.0.jar -DrepositoryId=myrepo
-Durl=dav:https://server/dav/url
-DgroupId=no.objectware -DartifactId=myproject -Dversion=1.0 -Dpackaging=jar

How to use deploy (and site-deploy) on Windows?

See Maven, Windows and Deploying to a Remote Location

How do I skip tests when preparing a release?

You need to pass the test argument as a system variable when Maven forks the thread to perform the tests like this:

mvn release:perform -Darguments=-Dmaven.test.skip=true

How can I skip site-deploy (or a exclude a certain plugin) when I do a release?

This is workaround that allows cutting a release even though reporting-plugins fail (e.g. clirr). 

mvn release:perform -Dgoals=deploy

Which distribution mechanisms are common for site-deploy?

File, scp and scpexe are common ways to distribute the site. 

<distributionManagement>
    <site>
      <id>site</id>
      <url>${siteUrl}</url>
    </site>
</distributionManagement>

File: Works almost always, but will only "deploy" the site locally.
- Example url: file:///var/www/html/sites

scp: Java implementation of scp based on JSCh. - Example url: scp://m2sites.company.com/var/www/html/sites

scpexe: Use external implementation of SSH. This can be more troublesome to set up on Windows, but works in general better than scp (at least on Unix systems :P).

See Wagon Providers for other distribution providers.

📝 If file protocol is set in site distributionManagement, the site for the release is lost unless the release is run from the server which hosts the sites. This problem should (IMHO) be possible to remedy by overriding the property commandline, but this doesn't seem to be supported yet according to MSITE-295.

How to authenticate when using site-deploy?

See the official docs for the element for more information. Some examples follow below. Note that username/password and privatekey/passphrase schemes are mutually exclusive.

Username and password in settings.xml
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>site</id>
      <username>user</username>
      <password>pass</password>      
      <filePermissions>664</filePermissions>
      <directoryPermissions>775</directoryPermissions>
      <configuration></configuration>
    </server>
  </servers>
Use SSH-keys
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>site</id>
      <username>user</username>      
      <privateKey>${user.home}/.ssh/id_dsa</privateKey>
      <passphrase>passphrase</passphrase>
      <filePermissions>664</filePermissions>
      <directoryPermissions>775</directoryPermissions>
      <configuration></configuration>
    </server>
  </servers>

Linux: OpenSSH Public Key Authentication

Windows with Putty: Public Key Authentication With PuTTY Windows with Tortoise: TODO

TODO: Verify that these recipes are complete and work properly.

How to "release" to Maven artifact repository using Maven Ant Tasks

Sometimes you need to deploy artifacts from non-Maven projects to a Maven repository. This is how to do it with Ant.

Installing Maven Ant Task
  1. Download Maven Ant Task jar-file, and place it in your Ant lib-folder.
  2. Add namespace to project element in build-file: 
    <project ... xmlns:artifact="antlib:org.apache.maven.artifact.ant">

See http://maven.apache.org/ant-tasks/installation.html

Deploy file with classified attachments
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="AntTest" basedir="." xmlns:artifact="antlib:org.apache.maven.artifact.ant">

  ...

  <target name="deploy-app">
    <artifact:install-provider artifactId="wagon-webdav" version="1.0-beta-2"/>
    <artifact:pom id="my-pom" file="${basedir}/pom.xml"/>

    <artifact:deploy file="${basedir}/src/myApplication.jar">        
      <attach file="${basedir}/src/myApplication-sources.jar" type="jar" classifier="src"/>
      <attach file="${basedir}/src/myApplication-docs.jar" type="jar" classifier="docs"/>
      <remoteRepository url="http://nexus.mysite.com/nexus/content/repositories/releases/"/>
      <pom refid="my-pom"/>
    </artifact:deploy>
  </target>
</project>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" 
  xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.colorline.accounting</groupId>
  <artifactId>myApplication</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1</version>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
</project>