This page is a brain dump of the various items needed for a release. It needs some work...

Preparation

request Bugzilla version update
ensure changes.xml is up to date
update JMeterVersion.java (version and year) and build.xml (version and docversion)
build site documents, having first cleaned out existing files (so obsolete files will be removed):
- [clean-docs] then [docs-site]
update docs tree in SVN
build code
test
- GUI and non-GUI using host with graphic capability
- non-GUI only using host with no graphic capability
- ideally test on minimum supported Java and latest Java - especially for GUI

Generate Release

tag all the files with a new RC tag, e.g. v2_3_3_RC1
extract files from SVN using the tag into a new directory tree
create a directory (<libextra>) to contain 3rd party libraries not included in the distribution
copy following jars to <libextra>: [none currently needed]
create distribution files:
- ant distribution -lib=<libextra> -Djmeter.version=m.n -Duser.name=user-AT-apache.org
- sign distribution files (gpg -ba file)

upload to temporary location (e.g. personal dir)
- cd public_html ; mkdir jmeter-m.n
- cd jmeter-m.n
- mkdir dist
- copy archives, sigs and hashes to dist
- Install the site docs: svn co http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/jakarta/jmeter/tags/vm_nxx/docs
- Extract Javadocs: unzip -x jmeter-m.n.o.zip '*/docs/api/*' and move to docs/api
send round [VOTE] e-mail to dev and general AT jakarta
Wait for any feedback; address any issues raised, if necessary by creating another release tag
If at least 3 PMC votes, then continue
send round [VOTE] [RESULT] e-mail to same mailing lists
Copy the RC tag to the release tag

Make sure that file group is set to jakarta (chgrp jakarta jakarta-jmeter*)
copy archives to /www/www.apache.org/dist/jakarta/jmeter/binaries and /www/www.apache.org/dist/jakarta/jmeter/source as appropriate
check files are visible and downloadable from www.apache.org (2+ hours)
- http://www.apache.org/dist/jakarta/jmeter/binaries/
- http://www.apache.org/dist/jakarta/jmeter/source/
wait a day or so for mirrors to catch up

Ensure you have an up-to-date checkout of https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/jakarta/site
update ./xdocs/downloads/downloads.xml file to point to new files
update ./news.xml to add details of new release
rebuild jakarta site (ant docs)
commit changes
login to people.apache.org
cd /www/jakarta.apache.org
svn update
cd /www/jakarta.apache.org/jmeter
fetch site from SVN:
- svn switch http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/jakarta/jmeter/tags/vm_n_o/docs
- If the documentation needs to be updated between releases, create a branch docs-vm_n_o from the tag and switch to that
- for later updates, use "svn switch" or "svn update" as appropriate (use svn info to find current setting)
- The Javadocs are not in SVN so these need to be copied from the staging area
N.B. wait for few hours so site updates catch up

update Wiki version details
update doap_JMeter.rdf details in trunk
send [ANNOUNCE] e-mail to jmeter-user@jakarta, dev@jakarta, announcements@jakarta
also copy to announce AT ao (has to be sent from an ao e-mail address)
N.B. to track bounces and unsubscribes, it may be a good idea to use separate mails to Jakarta and Announce, and include a simple marker to distinguish them, e.g. To: Jakarta, To: Announce.