This is the new release process for Apache Felix, based on the updated Maven process

Prerequisites

To prepare or perform a release you MUST BE at least an Apache Felix Committer.

• each and every release must be SIGNED; your public key should be added to http://www.apache.org/dist/felix/KEYS (see Appendix A)
• your public key should also be cross-signed by other Apache committers (not required, but suggested)
• when preparing the release on Mac OS X, make sure you read Appendix B before continuing
• make sure you have all Apache servers defined in your settings.xml

In the past we staged release candidates on our local machines using a semi-manual process. Now that we inherit from the Apache parent POM version 5, a repository manager will automatically handle staging for you. This means you now only need to specify your GPG passphrase in the release profile of your ${user.home}/.m2/settings.xml:

<settings>
  ...
  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>release</id>
      <properties>
        <gpg.passphrase> <!-- YOUR KEY PASSPHRASE --> </gpg.passphrase>
      </properties>
    </profile>
  </profiles>
  ...
</settings>

Everything else has been configured in the latest Felix parent POM:

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
    <artifactId>felix-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.0</version>
    <relativePath>../pom/pom.xml</relativePath>
  </parent>

Staging the Release Candidates

Starting the Vote

Canceling the Release

Promoting the Release

Appendix A

Appendix B: preparing releases on Mac OS X

When running the mvn release:prepare command on Mac OS X, you might see the following error:

[INFO] Executing: svn --non-interactive commit --file /tmp/maven-scm-802409492.commit --targets /tmp/maven-scm-18804-targets
[INFO] Working directory: /homedir/dev/felix/dependencymanager
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Unable to commit files
Provider message:
The svn command failed.
Command output:
svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: MKACTIVITY of '/repos/asf/!svn/act/4f11ad5d-9161-0410-b4dd-cb727141ea8c': authorization failed (https://svn.apache.org)

This is due to a bug in Subversion on the Mac, as described by Brett Porter in his blog. He proposes putting an "svn" script at the head of your path to fix the issue.

Appendix E: deploying bundles to the Felix OBR

If you're releasing bundles, you can also add them to the Felix Release OBR. To do this, execute the following command:

mvn clean install \
    org.apache.felix:maven-bundle-plugin:deploy \
    -DprefixUrl=http://repo1.maven.org/maven2 \
    -DremoteOBR=releases.xml \
    -DaltDeploymentRepository=apache.releases::default::scp://people.apache.org/www/felix.apache.org/obr

The http://felix.apache.org/obr/releases.xml page is automatically updated during the web site synchronization.
Note: the project building the bundle must use the maven-bundle-plugin and use a version superior or equal to 1.4.2.