Follow the instructions at Publishing Maven Artifacts after reading the below miscellaney.

You must use maven 3.0.x (Check by running mvn -version).

Let me list out the commands I used first. The sections that follow dig in more on what is going on. In this example, we are releasing the 0.92.2 jar to the apache maven repository.

  # First make a copy of the tag we want to release; presumes the release has been tagged already
  # We do this because we need to make some commits for the mvn release plugin to work.
  853  svn copy -m "Publishing 0.92.2 to mvn"  https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hbase/tags/0.92.2 https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hbase/tags/0.92.2mvn
  857  svn checkout https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/hbase/tags/0.92.2mvn
  858  cd 0.92.2mvn/
  # Edit the version making it release version with a '-SNAPSHOT' suffix (See below for more on this)
  860  vi pom.xml
  861  svn commit -m "Add SNAPSHOT to the version" pom.xml
  862  ~/bin/mvn/bin/mvn release:clean
  865  ~/bin/mvn/bin/mvn release:prepare
  866  # Answer questions and then ^C to kill the build after the last question. See below for more on this.
  867  vi release.properties
       # Change the references to trunk svn to be 0.92.2mvn; the release plugin presumes trunk
       # Then restart the release:prepare -- it won't ask questions
       # because the properties file exists.
  868  ~/bin/mvn/bin/mvn release:prepare
  # The apache-release profile comes from the apache parent pom and does signing of artifacts published
  869  ~/bin/mvn/bin/mvn release:perform  -Papache-release
       # When done copying up to apache staging repository,
       # browse to repository.apache.org, login and finish
       # the release as according to the above
       # "Publishing Maven Artifacts.
        

Below is more detail on the commmands listed above.

At the mvn release:perform step, before starting, if you are for example releasing hbase 0.92.2, you need to make sure the pom.xml version is 0.92.2-SNAPSHOT. This needs to be checked in. Since we do the maven release after actual release, I've been doing this checkin into a copy of the release tag rather than into the actual release tag itself (presumes the release has been properly tagged in svn). So, say we released hbase 0.92.2 and now we want to do the release to the maven repository, in svn, the 0.92.2 release will be tagged 0.92.2. Making the maven release, copy the 0.92.2 tag to 0.92.2mvn. Check out this tag and change the version therein and commit.

Currently, the mvn release wants to go against trunk. I haven't figured how to tell it to do otherwise so I do the below hack. The hack comprises answering the questions put to you by the mvn release plugin properly, then immediately control-C'ing the build after the last question asked as the build release step starts to run. After control-C'ing it, You'll notice a release.properties in your build dir. Review it. Make sure it is using the proper branch -- it tends to use trunk rather than the 0.92.2mvn or whatever that you want it to use -- so hand edit the release.properties file that was put under ${HBASE_HOME} by the release:perform invocation. When done, resstart the release:perform.

Here is how I'd answer the questions at release:prepare time:

What is the release version for "HBase"? (org.apache.hbase:hbase) 0.92.2: :
What is SCM release tag or label for "HBase"? (org.apache.hbase:hbase) hbase-0.92.2: : 0.92.2mvn
What is the new development version for "HBase"? (org.apache.hbase:hbase) 0.92.3-SNAPSHOT: :
[INFO] Transforming 'HBase'...

When you run release:perform, pass -Papache-release else it will not 'sign' the artifacts it uploads.

A strange issue I ran into was the one where the upload into the apache repository was being sprayed across multiple apache machines making it so I could not release. See INFRA-4482 Why is my upload to mvn spread across multiple repositories?.

Here is my ~/.m2/settings.xml. This is read by the release plugin. The apache-release profile will pick up your gpg key setup from here if you've specified it into the file. The password can be maven encrypted as suggested in the "Publishing Maven Artifacts" but plain text password works too (just don't let anyone see your local settings.xml).

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                      http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
  <servers>
    <!- To publish a snapshot of some part of Maven -->
    <server>
      <id>apache.snapshots.https</id>
      <username>YOUR_APACHE_ID
      </username>
      <password>YOUR_APACHE_PASSWORD
      </password>
    </server>
    <!-- To publish a website using Maven -->
    <!-- To stage a release of some part of Maven -->
    <server>
      <id>apache.releases.https</id>
      <username>YOUR_APACHE_ID
      </username>
      <password>YOUR_APACHE_PASSWORD
      </password>
    </server>
  </servers>
  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>apache-release</id>
      <properties>
    <gpg.keyname>YOUR_KEYNAME</gpg.keyname>
    <!--Keyname is something like this ... 00A5F21E... do gpg --list-keys to find it-->
    <gpg.passphrase>YOUR_KEY_PASSWORD
    </gpg.passphrase>
      </properties>
    </profile>
  </profiles>
</settings>
        

If you see run into the below, its because you need to edit version in the pom.xml and add -SNAPSHOT to the version (and commit).

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'release'.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building HBase
[INFO]    task-segment: [release:prepare] (aggregator-style)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] [release:prepare {execution: default-cli}]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] You don't have a SNAPSHOT project in the reactor projects list.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 3 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Sat Mar 26 18:11:07 PDT 2011
[INFO] Final Memory: 35M/423M
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------------------