Apache Maven

Your project should be able to compile, package, and assemble a distribution. We recommend configuring the following Maven plugins:

exec-maven-plugin: execute a main class.
appassembler-maven-plugin: collects application dependencies and generates launcher scripts.
maven-assembly-plugin: creates Zip and Tar distributions.

You also have to configure the jreleaser-maven-plugin. A sample project may look like this:

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.acme</groupId>
  <artifactId>app</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>

  <name>app</name>
  <description>Sample app</description>
  <url>https://acme.com/app</url>
  <inceptionYear>2021</inceptionYear>

  <properties>
    <app.main.class>com.acme.Main</app.main.class>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <java.version>1.8</java.version>
    <maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>${java.version}</maven.compiler.target>
    <app.distribution.directory>${project.build.directory}/distributions/app</app.distribution.directory>
  </properties>

  <licenses>
    <license>
      <name>Apache-2.0</name>
      <url>https://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0.html</url>
      <distribution>repo</distribution>
    </license>
  </licenses>

  <developers>
    <developer>
      <id>duke</id>
      <name>Java Duke</name>
    </developer>
  </developers>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.6.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <mainClass>${app.main.class}</mainClass>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.8.1</version>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.2.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <archive>
            <manifest>
              <mainClass>${app.main.class}</mainClass>
            </manifest>
          </archive>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>appassembler-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.1.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <assembleDirectory>${project.build.directory}/binary</assembleDirectory>
          <repositoryLayout>flat</repositoryLayout>
          <repositoryName>lib</repositoryName>
          <programs>
            <program>
              <mainClass>${app.main.class}</mainClass>
              <id>app</id>
            </program>
          </programs>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>make-distribution</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>assemble</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.2.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <attach>false</attach>
          <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
          <descriptors>
            <descriptor>src/main/assembly/assembly.xml</descriptor>
          </descriptors>
          <outputDirectory>${app.distribution.directory}</outputDirectory>
          <workDirectory>${project.build.directory}/assembly/work</workDirectory>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>make-distribution</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
              <goal>single</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.jreleaser</groupId>
        <artifactId>jreleaser-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.15.0</version>
        <inherited>false</inherited>
        <configuration>
          <jreleaser>
            <project>
              <java>
                <mainClass>${app.main.class}</mainClass>
              </java>
            </project>
            <release>
              <github>
                <owner>duke</owner>
                <overwrite>true</overwrite>
              </github>
            </release>
            <distributions>
              <app>
                <artifacts>
                  <artifact>
                    <path>
                      ${app.distribution.directory}/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}.zip
                    </path>
                  </artifact>
                  <artifact>
                    <path>
                      ${app.distribution.directory}/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}.tar.gz
                    </path>
                  </artifact>
                </artifacts>
              </app>
            </distributions>
          </jreleaser>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Make adjustments as needed. Once you have edited the pom.xml you may verify its configuration by invoking

$ mvn jreleaser:config

At any time you may invoke any of the other commands, but when it’s time to make a release you have to invoke

$ mvn jreleaser:full-release
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] ----------------------------< com.acme:app >----------------------------
[INFO] Building app 1.0.0
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ app ---
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory /Home/duke/app/src/main/resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.8.1:compile (default-compile) @ app ---
[INFO] Changes detected - recompiling the module!
[INFO] Compiling 1 source file to /Home/duke/app/target/classes
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:testResources (default-testResources) @ app ---
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] skip non existing resourceDirectory /Home/duke/app/src/test/resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.8.1:testCompile (default-testCompile) @ app ---
[INFO] No sources to compile
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-surefire-plugin:2.12.4:test (default-test) @ app ---
[INFO] No tests to run.
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-jar-plugin:3.2.0:jar (default-jar) @ app ---
[INFO] Building jar: /Home/duke/app/target/app-1.0.0.jar
[INFO]
[INFO] --- appassembler-maven-plugin:2.1.0:assemble (make-distribution) @ app ---
[INFO] Installing artifact /Home/duke/app/target/app-1.0.0.jar to /Home/duke/app/target/binary/lib/app-1.0.0.jar
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-assembly-plugin:3.2.0:single (make-distribution) @ app ---
[INFO] Reading assembly descriptor: src/main/assembly/assembly.xml
[INFO] Building tar: /Home/duke/app/target/distributions/app/app-1.0.0.tar.gz
[INFO] Building zip: /Home/duke/app/target/distributions/app/app-1.0.0.zip
[INFO] Copying files to /Home/duke/app/target/distributions/app/app-1.0.0
[INFO]
[INFO] --- jreleaser-maven-plugin:1.15.0:full-release (default-cli) @ app ---
[INFO] JReleaser 1.15.0
[INFO]   - basedir set to /Home/duke/app
[INFO] git-root-search set to false
[INFO] Loading properties from /Home/duke/.jreleaser/config.properties
[INFO] Validating configuration
[INFO] Strict mode set to false
[INFO] Project version set to 1.0.0
[INFO] Release is not snapshot
[INFO] Timestamp is 2021-03-28T12:25:16.219+02:00
[INFO] HEAD is at c3e39f1
[INFO] Platform is osx-x86_64
[INFO] dryrun set to false
[INFO] Generating changelog: out/jreleaser/release/CHANGELOG.md
[INFO] Calculating checksums
[INFO]   [checksum] target/distributions/app/app-1.0.0.zip
[INFO] Cataloging artifacts
[INFO]   [sbom] Cataloging is not enabled. Skipping
[INFO] Signing files
[INFO]   [sign] Signing is not enabled. Skipping
[INFO] Deploying Maven artifacts
[INFO]   [maven] Deploying is not enabled. Skipping
[INFO] Uploading distributions and files
[INFO]   [upload] Uploading is not enabled. Skipping
[INFO] Releasing to https://github.com/duke/app
[INFO]  - Uploading app-1.0.0.zip
[INFO]  - Uploading checksums.txt
[INFO] Preparing distributions
[INFO]   - Preparing app distribution
[INFO] Packaging distributions
[INFO]   - Packaging app distribution
[INFO] Publishing distributions
[INFO]   - Publishing app distribution
[INFO] Announcing release
[INFO]   [announce] Announcing is not enabled. Skipping
[INFO] Writing output properties to out/jreleaser/output.properties
[INFO] JReleaser succeeded after 0.894s
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This command performs the following actions:

checksums all artifacts.
signs all files (if signing is enabled).
creates a release at the chosen Git repository.
prepares, packages, and uploads configured packagers (brew, jbang, etc).
announces the release (if configured).

JReleaser generates 2 files after most commands are run. These are output.properties and trace.log. The first contains a set of calculated values such as the project version, tag, timestamp, and more. The second contains the full execution log plus any stacktraces in case of errors. You’ll find these files inside target/jreleaser.

Next Steps

Browse Reference options.
Discover all capabilities exposed by the JReleaser Maven Plugin.
Alternatively, configure the Java Archive assembler to create the archive.
Review the Checklist before releasing.