Release branches are created every two months at the beginning of the following month from the changes that were merged by the last day of the previous month.

If a feature is almost but not quite done at the end of the month, the release is not delayed for the feature.  That feature goes into the next release scheduled for two months later.

The name of the release is it's version.  As described in more detail in Versioning, the version number depends on whether the changes are backwards compatible or incompatible.

There is no code freeze for creating a release branch because we as committers only integrate things that pass the Code Review Guidelines.

Once a release branch is created and a release candidate is packaged, release stabilization proceeds as described in Stabilizing a release starting with a two week soak.

• Versioning
• Stabilizing a release

Steps to sign a release:

• As a release manager, I believe you should have created signing key by following Apache documentation (https://www.apache.org/dev/openpgp.html#key-gen-generate-key) In this example  I am considering 0.6.0-incubating is the release branch and current working directory is /home/user1.
• Prepare the release notes in Release Folders
• Clone release branch with command

# cd /home/user1
# git clone -b 0.6.0-incubating --single-branch https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-fineract.git apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src

• Make sure build is happening and all integration tests are passed by following steps defined in readme.md
• Create a binary directory with release version under /home/user1/. In this example the directory name is apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary
• Build war file and copy into binary directory. Extract LICENSE, NOTICE, DISCLAIMER files from fineract-provider.war and place them in binary directory.
• Now create a tar file of binary directory with below command. This command will create apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz file in /home/user1 directory.

# cd /home/user1
# tar -zcvf apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary

• Now move to apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src and remove all git configuration directories/files. Remove bin, catalina.base_IS_UNDEFINED, build directories from fineract-provider directory
• Remove gradle wrapper jar file from apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating/fineract-provider/gradle/wrapper
• Remove LICENSE_RELEASE, NOTICE_RELEASE files. Rename LICENSE_SOURCE TO LICENSE and NOTICE_SOURCE to NOTICE. Remove binary directory from licenses directory.
• Now create source tar file with below command. This command with create apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz file in /home/user1 directory.

# cd /home/user1
# tar -zcvf apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src

• Next step is to create detached signature, checksum with MD5 and SHA with the following commands

# cd /home/user1 # gpg --armor --output apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.asc --detach-sig apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz # gpg --print-md MD5 apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz > apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.md5 # gpg --print-md SHA512 apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz > apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.sha # gpg --armor --output apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.asc --detach-sig apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz # gpg --print-md MD5 apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz > apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.md5 # gpg --print-md SHA512 apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz > apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.sha

Finally create a directory with release name (0.6.0-incubating in this example) in https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/fineract and add the following files in this new directory.

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.sha

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.asc

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-binary.tar.gz.md5

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.sha

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.asc

apache-fineract-0.6.0-incubating-src.tar.gz.md5

Next step is to drop mail to dev@fineract.incubator.apache.org about release approval. Once we get sufficient votes, then drop a mail to general@incubator.apache.org

Once release is approved then announce the release to the community.