Maven release via Hudson

Question

I'm setting up Hudson to use the batch-task plugin to do maven releases to our internal repository. I'm doing it via:

mvn --batch-mode release:prepare
mvn --batch-mode release:perform

I'm interested in other methods people have used and the pros and cons of those methods. Also, any gotchas people have come across.

Answer 1

I have tended to do the releases always by hand for a few reasons. First if you have to roll back it's easier when you can go back to the original release location and do it. Secondly because you need to resolve all snapshot dependencies as part of the process.

Our development process has us leaving dependencies external to the current build at the previous release version until a fix requires an upgrade. This means that if I'm releasing Nexus, Maven, etc, then I see snapshots and it means I have to go off and release those first. This process isn't really possible to automate since it varies based on what's changed since the last release.

That said, we have a special machine (at Sonatype it's just a vm) setup only for builds. This is done to guarantee no environmental changes occur that could influence a build accidentally (like a jdk change). It also makes it easier for anyone to pick up the release process because it's always ready to go.