Apache Tomcat Release Process

Introduction

This is written primarily for Apache Tomcat release managers although it may also be of interest to anyone looking to validate and/or replicate the release process. This page uses Tomcat 7 as an example but the same process applies to later versions as well. Note that earlier versions have a slightly different, more complex release process.

Pre-requisites

• A subversion client installed and on your path
• Apache Ant installed and on your path (see BUILDING.txt in the root of the svn repo for version requirements)
• The latest release of the minimum Java version that the Tomcat version runs on installed and on your path
• Windows OS (you can do it on Linux but it involves a lot more hassle)
• GnuPG installed
• A public key that is part of the Apache web of trust
• A reasonable internet connection (you will need to upload ~100MB)
  

Create the tag

The aim is to create a copy of the current trunk but without the "-dev" appended to the end of the version number.

• Perform an svn checkout of tc7.0.x/trunk (e.g. to 7.0.x-release)
• Edit 7.0.x-release/build.properties and change the line version.suffix=-dev to version.suffix=
• svn cp . https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/tc7.0.x/tags/TOMCAT_7_0_XX
• Check the diff mailed to the dev list

I found it simplest to keep this checkout with the modified build.properties.default and just do an svn up prior to each tag. I only used the checkout for tagging to ensure no other edits found their way into the tag.

Build the release

• svn export https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/tc7.0.x/tags/TOMCAT_7_0_XX TOMCAT_7_0_XX
• Add a build.properties file with the following configuration (adjust paths for your environment)

execute.validate=true

execute.test.bio=true
execute.test.nio=true
execute.test.apr=true

test.haltonfailure=true

gpg.exec=C:/Program Files (x86)/GNU/GnuPG/gpg2.exe

base.path=C:/temp/libs

• ant release
  

Notes:

• GPG should be configured to use your Apache code signing key by default
• I always ensured c:/temp/libs was empty so that the build had to download all the dependencies
  

Upload the release

Upload the contents of TOMCAT_7_0_XX/output/release to https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/tomcat/tomcat-7/

Generate the Maven artifacts

See https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/tc7.0.x/trunk/res/maven/README.txt steps 1 to 3 (not step 4!)

Call a vote

• E.g. http://markmail.org/message/gvmbwocspnwb2dfe
• Increment the version number ready for the next tag (e.g. http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?view=revision&revision=1500094)
  

If the vote passes

•  svn mv https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.XX https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.XX

•  svn checkout --depth immediates https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/tomcat/tomcat-7/ 

  and update the KEYS file there to be the same as the one used for release. (The download page has links pointing to this file).
• Release the Maven artifacts (https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/tc7.0.x/trunk/res/maven/README.txt step 4)
• Wait for the mirrors to sync (upto 24 hours depending on what percentage of the mirrors you want to sync)
• Update the website (e.g. http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?view=revision&revision=1500109)
  Note: the index and oldnews pages are sorted by date. Thus the new announcement pops up to the top of the page.
• Update the docs (see http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tomcat/site/trunk/README.txt)
• Announce the release (e.g. http://markmail.org/message/xyantb3ozzmucdjt) to users@t.a.o, cc dev@t.a.o, announce@t.a.o, announce@a.o
• Update the release date in the changelog to the date the files were copied to the the release area in yyyy-dd-mm format
• Add the version number in Bugzilla
  

If the vote does not pass

• Update the release date in the changelog to "not released"