Before beginning your first release, take the following preparatory steps:  

  1. Make sure you have Java 8 as the default JDK.

  2. Run mvn clean install on the project to make sure it will build cleanly. 

  3. Login to https://repository.apache.org using your ASF credentials. Click on your username in the upper-right-hand corner and click Profile. Make sure your email address is correct. If not, contact Infra to get it corrected. You will be unable to get the necessary notifications until it's corrected. 

  4. Make sure you have a 4096-bit RSA PGP key pair for code signing. The public key should be published in a public repository, preferably http://keyserver.ubuntu.com. Also make sure the public key is published to https://www.apache.org/dist/logging/KEYS.

  5. Configure this key as your git signing key for release tags: git config user.signingkey 0x1234567812345678
    1. Make sure your user.name and user.email git config values match the name and email of this GPG key.

  6. Edit ~/.m2/settings.xml to add the corresponding private key and its passphrase to your settings. Also add the Apache Subversion server credentials and Sonatype repository credentials to your settings (this is your ASF credentials). You'll want to blank out the passphrase after each release and fill it back in prior to each release so that it isn't compromised. Alternatively, you can encrypt your passwords with a master password.

    <profiles>
        <profile>
            <id>apache-release</id>
            <properties>
                <gpg.keyname>ABC123FC</gpg.keyname>
                <gpg.passphrase>thisIsMyPassphrase</gpg.passphrase>
                <gpg.executable>gpg2</gpg.executable><!-- Use this if executable differs from "gpg" -->
            </properties>
        </profile>
    </profiles>

    <activeProfiles>
        <activeProfile>apache-release</activeProfile>
    </activeProfiles>

    ...

    <servers>
        <server>
            <id>svn.apache.org</id>
            <username>myUsername</username>
            <password>myPassword</password>
        </server>
        <server>
            <id>apache.releases.https</id>
            <username>myUsername</username>
            <password>myPassword</password>
        </server>
        <server>
            <id>apache.snapshots.https</id>
            <username>myUsername</username>
            <password>myPassword</password>
        </server>
    </servers>  


Once you've done this, take the following steps to perform a release:  

  1. Edit pom.xml and change the Log4jReleaseVersion property to the version you are releasing. 

  2. Make a fresh Git clone of the master branch of https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2.git. 

  3. Update src/changelog/.changelog.adoc.ftl with the appropriate release text.
  4. Ensure that log4jReleaseVersion property is set in the root pom.xml to the release number to be created

  5. Run 

    mvn -P changelog-release validate

    to generate the changelog for the release. After running delete directory src/changelog/2.x.x. (This will need to be recreated later).

  6. Run 

    mvn clean site

    to build the web site.

  7. Copy target/site/release-notes/${log4jReleaseVersion}.html into https://codebeautify.org/html-to-markdown or a similar site and then edit the generated Markdown as appropriate, ensuring the appropriate license header is included and the headings are correct.
  8. Save the edited text to RELEASE-NOTES.md.

  9. Run git add, git commit, and git push to commit the RELEASE-NOTES.md file that was just generated along with the other files that were modified.

  10. Copy the site: 

    mvn site:stage -DstagingDirectory=$HOME/log4j

     where $HOME is your home directory and verify that the site looks good.  Repeat steps 6-10 as necessary.

  11. Run

    mvn -P apache-release -DskipTests -Darguments="-DskipTests" release:prepare release:perform -DreleaseVersion=n.n.n -DdevelopmentVersion=n.n.n-SNAPSHOT -Dtag=log4j-n.n.n-rcn 


    to start the release. Enter the password to your signing key when prompted.

  12. Login to http://repository.apache.org using your ASF credentials. Select "Staging Repositories" then check the org.apache.logging repository and close it. 

  13. Check out the release tag that was created via the Maven release plugin using git checkout tags/tagname. 

  14. Run mvn site in the tag directory. When that completes run mvn site:stage -DstagingDirectory=$HOME/log4j where $HOME is your home directory. 

  15. Zip the contents of $HOME/log4j with zip -r log4j.zip log4j. 

  16. Create the preview web site:
    1. Clone the Log4j web site from https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j-site.git. Checkout the asf-staging branch.
    2. Create a directory matching the target release version. Unzip the site zip file into that directory. Unlink the 2.x symlink and link it to the newly created directory.
    3. Commit and push the web site preview.


  17. Copy the distribution archive files from log4j-distribution/target to where https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/logging/log4j/ is checked out on your machine. 

  18. Generate the release vote email: 

    1. Create the email addressed to dev@logging.apache.org. Sending the email to the PMC is not necessary. 

    2. Copy the changes in the release from RELEASE-NOTES.txt into the email. 

    3. Provide a link to the tag, web site on http://people.apache.org, and the artifacts in the Nexus repository. 

    4. Provide the command to download all the artifacts: 

      wget -e robots=off --cut-dirs=7 -nH -r -p -np --no-check-certificate $LINK

      where $LINK is the URL to the repository you just closed (plus the org/apache/logging/log4j/ path appended). 


  19. If the release vote fails proceed as described in the section below, otherwise if it passes: 

    1. Create a new (immutable) tag named rel/n.n from the log4j-n.n.n-rcn tag by changing to the changing to the directory containing the source for the release and performing 

      git tag [--local-user userId] -s rel/n.n.n -m "Release n.n.n of Log4j"

      where --local-user is optional, followed by

      git push --tags
  20. The following steps must be performed by a PMC member: 

    1. Checkout https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/logging/log4j. 

    2. Create the release directory under the log4j directory. 

    3. Move all the distribution artifacts from the distribution dev location to that directory.

      1. Example: 

        # create directory for release
svn mkdir https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/logging/log4j/n.n.n
svn commit
# move files from dev to release (fully server-side; no more uploads!); this action is its own commit
svn mv $(svn ls '^/dev/logging/log4j' | grep apache-log4j-n.n.n | xargs printf '^/dev/logging/log4j/%s ') '^/release/logging/log4j/n.n.n'
# remove previous release
svn rm https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/logging/log4j/n.n.n-1
svn commit
    4. Login to reporter.apache.org and add the release version and date.
    5. Login to Jira and mark the version as released today.
  21. The following steps can then be taken by whomever started the release: 
    1. Release the artifacts in the Nexus Repository. 
    2. Add directory 2.x.x to src/changelog.
  22. Wait 12-24 hours (or after the distribution artifacts have been propagated to the mirrors and the Maven artifacts have been propagated to the Central Repository), and then the following steps must be performed by a PMC member: 

    1. Perform svn delete on the previous release directory for the same version under the log4j directory (https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/logging/log4j). 

    2. Commit the delete to Subversion. 

    3. See ManagingTheWebSite regarding sub-projects. 

    4. In your log4j web site repo checkout the asf-site branch. Perform git checkout asf-site then git rebase asf-staging and finally git push. Wait 5 to 10 minutes and verify the web site is live.

  23. After the website is updated, send the release announcement email. This should be sent out to dev@logging.apache.org and log4j-user@logging.apache.org.

  24. Send the release announcement to announce@apache.org using your apache.org email address.  This can be combined with the previous step as a Cc field as long as the To field is the dev@ list and you send the email from your ASF email.

If the release fails before sending the vote email: 

  1. Login to https://repository.apache.org using your ASF credentials. Select "Staging Repositories" then check the org.apache.logging repository and drop it. 

  2. Revert any changes that have not been committed. 
  3. Restart the release process as the same release candidate.  

If the release fails after sending the vote email: 

  1. Login to https://repository.apache.org using your ASF credentials. Select "Staging Repositories" then check the org.apache.logging repository and drop it. 

  2. Rename the release tag in Git to add rcn to the end of the tag.

  3. Restart the release process as a new release candidate.