NiFi logo Apache NiFi Release Guide

The purpose of this document is to capture and describe the steps involved in producing an official release of Apache NiFi. It is written specifically to someone acting in the capacity of a Release Manager (RM).

Background Material

The objective

Our aim is to produce and official Apache release.
The following is a list of the sorts of things that will be validated and are the basics to check when evaluating a release for a vote.

What to validate and how to Validate a release

There are two lists here: one of specific incubator requirements, and another of general Apache requirements.

Incubator:

General Apache Release Requirements:

The flow of a release (an outline)

The mechanics of the release

Prepare your environment

Follow the steps outlined in the Quickstart Guide

At this point you're on the latest 'develop' branch and are able to build the entire application

Create a JIRA ticket for the release tasks and use that ticket number for the commit messages. For example we'll consider NIFI-270 as our ticket. Also have in mind the release version you are planning for. For example we'll consider '0.0.1-incubating'.

Create the next version in JIRA if necessary so develop work can continue towards that release.

Create new branch off develop named after the JIRA ticket or just use the develop branch itself. Here we'll use a branch off of develop with git checkout -b NIFI-270-RC1

Change directory into that of the project you wish to release. For example either cd nifi

Verify that Maven has sufficient heap space to perform the build tasks. Some plugins and parts of the build consumes a surprisingly large amount of space. These settings have been shown to work MAVEN_OPTS="-Xms1024m -Xmx3076m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"

Ensure your settings.xml has been updated as shown below. There are other ways to ensure your PGP key is available for signing as well

     ...
     <profile>
        <id>signed_release</id>
        <properties>
            <mavenExecutorId>forked-path</mavenExecutorId>
            <gpg.keyname>YOUR GPG KEY ID HERE</gpg.keyname>
            <gpg.passphrase>YOUR GPG PASSPHRASE HERE</gpg.passphrase>
        </properties>
    </profile>
    ...
    <servers>
       <server>
           <id>repository.apache.org</id>
           <username>YOUR USER NAME HERE</username>
           <password>YOUR MAVEN ENCRYPTED PASSWORD HERE</password>
       </server>
    </servers>
    ...

Ensure the the full application build and tests all work by executing mvn -T 2.5C clean install for a parallel build. Once that completes you can startup and test the application by cd nifi-assembly/target then run bin/nifi.sh start in the nifi build. The application should be up and running in a few seconds at http://localhost:8080/nifi

Evaluate and ensure the appropriate license headers are present on all source files. Ensure LICENSE and NOTICE files are complete and accurate.
Developers should always be keeping these up to date as they go along adding source and modifying dependencies to keep this burden manageable.
This command mvn install -Pcontrib-check should be run as well to help validate. If that doesn't complete cleanly it must be addressed.

Now its time to have maven prepare the release so execute mvn release:prepare -Psigned_release -DscmCommentPrefix="NIFI-270-RC1 " -Darguments="-DskipTests". Maven will ask:

What is the release version for "Apache NiFi"? (org.apache.nifi:nifi) 0.0.1-incubating: :

Just hit enter to accept the default.

Maven will then ask:

What is SCM release tag or label for "Apache NiFi"? (org.apache.nifi:nifi) nifi-0.0.1-incubating: :

Enter nifi-0.0.1-incubating-RC1 or whatever the appropriate release candidate (RC) number is. Maven will then ask:

What is the new development version for "Apache NiFi"? (org.apache.nifi:nifi) 0.0.2-incubating-SNAPSHOT: :

Just hit enter to accept the default.

Now that preparation went perfectly it is time to perform the release and deploy artifacts to staging. To do that execute

mvn release:perform -Psigned_release -DscmCommentPrefix="NIFI-270-RC1 " -Darguments="-DskipTests"

That will complete successfully and this means the artifacts have been released to the Apache Nexus staging repository. You will see something like

[INFO] * Closing staging repository with ID "orgapachenifi-1011".

So if you browse to https://repository.apache.org/#stagingRepositories login with your Apache committer credentials and you should see orgapachenifi-1011. If you click on that you can inspect the various staged artifacts.

Validate that all the various aspects of the staged artifacts appear correct

If all looks good then push the branch to origin git push origin NIFI-270

If it is intended that convenience binaries will be provided for this release then the community has requested that a copy it be made available for reviewing of the release candidate. The convenience binary, its hashes, and signature should be placed here: - https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/nifi

If anything isn't correct about the staged artifacts you can drop the staged repo from repository.apache.org and delete the local tag in git. If you also delete the local branch and clear your local maven repository under org/apache/nifi then it is as if the release never happened. Before doing that though try to figure out what went wrong. So as described here you see that you can pretty easily test the release process until you get it right. The mvn versions:set and mvn versions:commit commands can come in handy to help do this so you can set versions to something clearly release test related.

Now it's time to initiate a vote within the PPMC. Send the vote request to dev@nifi.incubator.apache.org with a subject of [VOTE] Release Apache NiFi 0.0.1-incubating. The following template can be used:

Hello
I am pleased to be calling this vote for the source release of Apache NiFi
nifi-0.0.1-incubating.

The source zip, including signatures, digests, etc. can be found at:
https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachenifi-1011

The Git tag is nifi-0.0.1-incubating-RC1
The Git commit ID is 72abf18c2e045e9ef404050e2bffc9cef67d2558
https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=incubator-nifi.git;a=commit;h=72abf18c2e045e9ef404050e2bffc9cef67d2558

Checksums of nifi-0.0.1-incubating-source-release.zip:
MD5: 5a580756a17b0573efa3070c70585698
SHA1: a79ff8fd0d2f81523b675e4c69a7656160ff1214

Release artifacts are signed with the following key:
https://people.apache.org/keys/committer/joewitt.asc

KEYS file available here:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/incubator/nifi/KEYS

Should the source release be successful we intend to make convenience binaries available.  The 
convenience binary of this source release along with the appropriate hashes and signature can be found
here: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/nifi

8 issues were closed/resolved for this release:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12316020&version=12329307

The vote will be open for 72 hours. 
Please download the release candidate and evaluate the necessary items including checking hashes, signatures, build from source, and test.  The please vote:

[ ] +1 Release this package as nifi-0.0.1-incubating
[ ] +0 no opinion
[ ] -1 Do not release this package because because...

A release vote is majority rule. So wait 72 hours and see if there are at least 3 binding (in the PPMC sense of binding) +1 votes and no more negative votes than positive. If so forward the vote to the IPMC. Send the vote request to general@incubator.apache.org with a subject of [VOTE] Release Apache NiFi 0.0.1-incubating. The following template can be used:

Hello

The Apache NiFi PPMC has voted to release Apache NiFi 0.0.1-incubating.
The vote was based on the release candidate and thread described below.
We now request the IPMC to vote on this release.

Here is the PPMC voting result:
X +1 (binding)
Y -1 (binding)

Here is the PPMC vote thread: [URL TO PPMC Vote Thread]

The source zip, including signatures, digests, etc. can be found at:
https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachenifi-1011

The Git tag is nifi-0.0.1-incubating-RC1
The Git commit ID is 72abf18c2e045e9ef404050e2bffc9cef67d2558
https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=incubator-nifi.git;a=commit;h=72abf18c2e045e9ef404050e2bffc9cef67d2558

Checksums of nifi-0.0.1-incubating-source-release.zip:
MD5: 5a580756a17b0573efa3070c70585698
SHA1: a79ff8fd0d2f81523b675e4c69a7656160ff1214

Release artifacts are signed with the following key:
https://people.apache.org/keys/committer/joewitt.asc

KEYS file available here:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/incubator/nifi/KEYS

Should the source release be successful we intend to make convenience binaries available.  The 
convenience binary of this source release along with the appropriate hashes and signature can be found
here: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/nifi

8 issues were closed/resolved for this release:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12316020&version=12329307

The vote will be open for 72 hours. 
Please download the release candidate and evaluate the necessary items including checking hashes, signatures, build from source, and test.  The please vote:

[ ] +1 Release this package as nifi-0.0.1-incubating
[ ] +0 no opinion
[ ] -1 Do not release this package because because...

Wait 72 hours. If the vote passes then send a vote result email. Send the email to general@incubator.apache.org, dev@nifi.incubator.apache.org with a subject of [RESULT][VOTE] Release Apache NiFi 0.0.1-incubating. Use a template such as:

Hello

The release passes with

X +1 (binding) votes
Y -1 (binding) votes

Thanks to all who helped make this release possible.

Here is the IPMC vote thread: [INSERT URL OF IPMC Vote Thread]

Now all the voting is done and the release is good to go.

Here are the steps of the release once the release is approved:

  1. Upload source-release artifacts to dist. If the release version is 0.0.1-incubating then upload them (zip, asc, md5, sha1) to https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/incubator/nifi/0.0.1-incubating

  2. To produce binary convenience release build the application from the raw source in staging. For each binary convenience artifact:

    • Generate ascii armored detached signature by running gpg -a -b nifi-0.0.1-incubating-bin.tar.gz
    • Generate md5 hash summary by running md5sum nifi-0.0.1-incubating-bin.tar.gz | awk '{ printf substr($0,0,32)}' > nifi-0.0.1-incubating-bin.tar.gz.md5
    • Generate sha1 hash summary by running sha1sum nifi-0.0.1-incubating-bin.tar.gz | awk '{ printf substr($0,0,40)}' > nifi-0.0.1-incubating-bin.tar.gz.sha1
    • Upload the bin, asc, sha1, md5 for each binary convenience build to the same location as the source release

  3. In repository.apache.org go to the staging repository and select release and follow instructions on the site.

  4. Merge the release branch into master

  5. Merge the release branch into develop

  6. Update the NiFi website to point to the new download(s)

  7. Update the NiFi incubator status page to indicate NEWS of the release

  8. In Jira mark the release version as 'Released' and 'Archived' through 'version' management in the 'administration' console.

  9. Wait 24 hours then send release announcement.

    • See here for an understanding of why you need to wait 24 hours
    • Then create an announcement like the one shown below addressed to 'announce@apache.org, general@incubator.apache.org, dev@nifi.incubator.apache.org' with a reply-to of 'general@incubator.apache.org'.
    • The email has to be sent from an apache.org email address and should be by the release manager of the build.
      SUBJECT:  [ANNOUNCE] Apache NiFi 0.0.2-incubating release
BODY:
Hello

The Apache NiFi team would like to announce the release of Apache NiFi 0.0.2-incubating.

Apache NiFi is an easy to use, powerful, and reliable system to process and distribute data.  Apache NiFi was made for dataflow.  It supports highly configurable directed graphs of data routing, transformation, and system mediation logic.

More details on Apache NiFi can be found here:
http://nifi.incubator.apache.org/

The release artifacts can be downloaded from here:
http://nifi.incubator.apache.org/downloads/

Maven artifacts have been made available here:
https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/releases/org/apache/nifi/

Release notes available here:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12316020&version=12329373

Thank you
The Apache NiFi team

----
DISCLAIMER

Apache NiFi is an effort undergoing incubation at The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), sponsored by  Apache Incubator. Incubation is required of all newly accepted projects until a further review indicates that the infrastructure, communications, and decision making process have stabilized in a manner consistent with other successful ASF projects. While incubation status is not necessarily a reflection of the completeness or stability of the code, it does indicate that the project has yet to be fully endorsed by the ASF.