Maven Release Plugin for Github Projects

I always forget to update the version of software in the pom.xml file when performing a release so, after someone suggested we sort this out, I looked into how to setup the maven release plugin for github.

I could not find clear, example based, documentation, hence this post.

Step 1 - SSH Keys

It will be far easier to use github over SSH with the release plugin.

You will need to follow this guide to Connecting to GitHub with SSH.

Step 2 - SCM Details

There is a SCM tag in the pom.xml which will need to look something like:

  <scm>
    <connection>scm:git:git@github.com:my-account/my-project</connection>
    <url>scm:git:git@github.com:my-account/my-project</url>
    <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:my-account/my-project</developerConnection>
    <tag>HEAD</tag>
  </scm>

Step 3 - Maven Release Plugin

Add the release plugin to your pom.xml file:

<build>
  </plugins>
    <plugin>
      <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.5.3</version>
      <configuration>
        <useReleaseProfile>false</useReleaseProfile>
        <tagNameFormat>v@{version}</tagNameFormat>
      </configuration>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Step 4- Profit (aka automatically release new version)

Run mvn release:prepare and follow the prompts.

For more information see the maven release plugin docs.

As always, if you have any comments please contact me.