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

Preparation

request Bugzilla version update (on https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA or if you are JMeter committer, ask for sufficient Bugzilla karma to do this yourself)
ensure changes.xml is up to date
update JMeterVersion.java (version and year), build.xml (version and docversion) and NOTICE (year)
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_5_1_RC1
N.B. Tags must be immutable, i.e. must not be changed once created. A tag can be deleted if it is no longer needed, but must not be recreated.
- If there is a problem with the contents of an RC tag, create a new tag, for example v2_5_1_RC2
- If the tag is part of an ongoing release vote, do not delete it whilst the vote is ongoing, even if the vote is now using a later tag. It can be useful to be able to compare the contents of tags as part of the voting process.
- Once the release vote is over, intermediate tags are no longer needed, and can be deleted.
- If the tag has not been used in a release vote, it can be deleted immediately.
extract files from SVN using the tag into a new directory tree
download jars needed to build: "ant download_jars"
create distribution files:
- ant distribution -lib=<libextra> -Djmeter.version=m.n -Duser.name=user-AT-apache.org
- sign distribution files (gpg -ba file)
  - ex. gpg2 -u <id_key> -ba apache-jmeter-2.5.1_src.tgz
  - ex. gpg2 -u <id_key> -ba apache-jmeter-2.5.1_src.zip
  - ex. gpg2 -u <id_key> -ba apache-jmeter-2.5.1.tgz
  - ex. gpg2 -u <id_key> -ba apache-jmeter-2.5.1.zip
Generate RAT report (example on Linux with Java)
- java -jar $RAT_HOME/apache-rat-0.7.jar ./apache-jmeter-2.5.1.tgz > rat-report-jmeter-2.5.1RC1.txt

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
- check hashes (before / after uploads)
- Install the site docs: svn co http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/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
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 jmeter (chgrp jmeter apache-jmeter*)
copy archives to /www/www.apache.org/dist/jmeter/binaries and /www/www.apache.org/dist/jmeter/source as appropriate
check files are visible and downloadable from www.apache.org (2+ hours)
- http://www.apache.org/dist/jmeter/binaries/
- http://www.apache.org/dist/jmeter/source/
wait a day or so for mirrors to catch up

TBA - update of download page

login to people.apache.org
cd /www/jmeter.apache.org/
fetch site from SVN:
- svn switch http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/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 user@jmeter.a.o, dev@jmeter.a.o
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 a separate mail to Announce