Building Apache Geronimo

Overview

This documents how to build the Apache Geronimo Server project.

This guide is intended to cover how to build the latest server/trunk, though other newer branches should also follow similar instructions. Server trees that use the same basic build tooling include:

• server/trunk
• server/branches/2.2
• server/branches/2.1
• server/branches/2.0
• server/branches/1.2 (not tested recently)

nightly built snapshots from trunk
If you are only interested in obtaining a compiled binary of what is most recent in trunk, this is already made available. Geronimo server/trunk is built from the repository on a nightly basis, and the resulting compiled binaries are available as snapshots on Apache's Snapshot Repository. Particularly you will want the Apache Geronimo assemblies which is what is published when Geronimo is released as a major revision.

Typically one would compile Geronimo when testing code modifications, otherwise the snapshots the Geronimo community provides is sufficient for testing the latest code from the repository. And when submitting a bug, the community appreciates if these latest Geronimo assemblies can be tested for the bug to make sure we haven't already fixed it. 

other relevant documentation
The Geronimo community also maintains build documentation specific to each Geronimo version. While the community attempts to keep all these related docs in sync with each other, you may find some varying information among them.

• Geronimo 3.0: Building Geronimo with Maven
• Geronimo 2.2: Building Geronimo with Maven

Prerequisites

Java Developer Kit (JDK)

You will need a JDK 6.0+ (Java SE 1.6.0+ SDK) or compatible JDK to build Apache Geronimo from trunk. It is recommended you use SUN's implementation, or something compatible like Apples implementation. Other JDK vendors implementations may work, but use at your own risk.

Apache Geronimo 2.2
JDK 5.0+ (J2SE 1.5.0+) or compatible JDK.
The Java SE (JDK) 6.0 works with Geronimo 2.2.

Apache Geronimo 2.1 and earlier
JDK 5.0+ (J2SE 1.5.0+) or compatible JDK.

Apache Maven 2

To execute the build process you need to have Apache Maven version 2.2.1 (or newer) installed to build Apache Geronimo from trunk.

Apache Geronimo 2.2
Apache Maven version 2.0.10 (or newer)

To check if your installation is working and you have the required minimum version run:

mvn -version

And it should produce something like:

Maven version: 2.2.1

...
   <mirrors>
       <mirror>
           <id>java.net</id>
           <name>Mirror of https://maven-repository.dev.java.net/nonav/repository/</name>
           <url>http://download.java.net/maven/2/</url>
           <mirrorOf>java.net</mirrorOf>
       </mirror>
   </mirrors>
...

If you have an incompatible version the server build will probably fail with a message complaining

Subversion

To fetch the source code for the server, you will need to have a Subversion client version 1.5 (or newer, 1.5 is recommended) installed.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<settings>
    <localRepository>C:\.m2</localRepository>
</settings>

Checkout Geronimo

svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/geronimo/server/trunk server

Preparing to Build for the First Time

Chances are you will need to increase the heap size for Maven. Add the following lines to ~/.mavenrc:

# Increase the heap size Maven
if [ "x$MAVEN_OPTS" = "x" ]; then
    MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx512m
fi

If you are using the SUN JDK (or a JDK with compatible flags, like the Apple JDK), you should also increase the maximum permanent size as well as the heap:

# Increase the heap and max permanent size for Maven
if [ "x$MAVEN_OPTS" = "x" ]; then
    MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=64m"
fi

For Apache Geronimo 2.2, use at least:

if [ "x$MAVEN_OPTS" = "x" ]; then
    MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=64m"
fi

set <VARIABLE>=<VALUE>

Building

To build all changes incrementally:

mvn install

To perform clean builds, which are sometimes needed after some changes to the source tree:

mvn clean install

Building Stages

In some cases you may need to build Geronimo in stages, such as when you have changed the geronimo version. Most users will not need to do this, but its documented here for clarity.

To build modules, testsupport and maven-plugins:

mvn install -Dstage=bootstrap

To build apps, configs and assemblies:

mvn install -Dstage=assemble

As mentioned, most users will not need to build Geronimo in stages. But in some cases, when bootstrapping new versions (when no artifacts are deployed into remote repositories for the current version), then you must build the stages separately for the first build and then for all builds afterwards, the staged build is not necessary.

Build Options

Add the HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError flag to MAVEN_OPTS to get a dump on OutOfMemory errors

-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

Use -DskipTests=true to turn off tests during server build. You can use this flag if your simply running a build to save a little more time. However, if you are making code changes, you should not use this flag and build with the tests to make sure the changes to not break anything. Testing the build is necessary if you are submitting a patch or code change recommendations.

mvn clean install -DskipTests=true

You can also build in an offline mode. Use -o to avoid searching remote repositories to save more time. However, you have to complete one full online build before this will work so that all dependencies will be downloaded into your local maven repository. After the first complete build, using the -o flag will cause maven to only use what you have locally and not search remote repositories.

mvn -o clean install

To get Maven to provide you with more error details, use -X to get stack traces on errors.

mvn clean install -X

Geronimo Assemblies Resulting from the Build

After a complete build has successfully finished, the resulting assemblies are located in associated subdirectories of BUILDROOT/framework/assemblies. These are the same as what are provided from Apache Geronimo Snapshots.

Testing the Assembly

using the geronimo-maven-plugin

Once you have build the server fully, which will produce a number of zip and tar.gz archives from the assembly modules, you can use the geronimo-maven-plugin to start the server. From the project root directory run:

mvn -Ptools geronimo:start

mvn -Ptools geronimo:start -DinstallDirectory=c:\g

And to stop, either CTRL-C or from a separate terminal, from the project root directory run:

mvn -Ptools geronimo:stop

or by hand

cd assemblies/geronimo/jetty6-javaee5/target
tar xzf geronimo-jetty6-javaee5-<version>-bin.tar.gz
./geronimo-jetty-javaee5-<version>/bin/gsh geronimo/start-server

IDE Setup

The server project does not have any IDE files checked in since major IDEs have better support for maven than maven for them.

Intellij IDEA

For the IDEA 8.1 and later:
The project is too large to easily open at once in IDEA. Generally the framework project and individual plugins are a good size to work with. In the maven projects tab, check the it profile to get more of the maven projects.

Eclipse

Use the maven2 eclipse:eclipse plugin. See Developing Geronimo in Eclipse for detailed instructions. As for IDEA, opening framework or individual plugins is more likely to work than trying to open the whole project.

Troubleshooting

If you're building the 2.0 branch and the build fails because it can't find an xbean jar (for example org.apache.xbean:xbean-naming:jar:3.2-r579367), then add the

http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/openejb/repo/

repository to the pom.xml file in the root of the source tree. See this message for more details.