Release Guide¶
This guide details the process of performing a GeoServer release.
Before you start¶
SNAPSHOT release¶
For any release (including release candidates) a GeoServer release requires the corresponding GeoTools and GeoWebCache releases. Therefore, before you start you should coordinate a release with these projects, either performing the release yourself or asking a volunteer to perform the release.
Notify developer list¶
Send an email to the GeoServer developer list a few days in advance, even though the release date has been agreed upon before hand. It is a good idea to remind developers to get any fixes 24 hours prior to release day, and to start a team discussion to identify any known blockers.
Prerequisites¶
The following are necessary to perform a GeoServer release:
Commit access to the GeoServer Git repository
Build access to Jenkins
Edit access to the GeoServer Blog
Administration rights to GeoServer JIRA
Release/file management privileges in SourceForge
Versions and revisions¶
When performing a release, we don’t require a “code freeze” in which no developers can commit to the repository. Instead we release from a revision that is known to pass all tests, including unit/integration tests from a nightly build.
To obtain the GeoServer, GWC and GeoTools revisions that have passed testing, navigate to geoserver.org/download > Development, find the correct series (e.g. 2.17.x) and download a “binary” nightly build. From the download check the src/target/VERSION.txt
file. For example:
version = 2.17-SNAPSHOT
git revision = 1ee183d9af205080f1543dc94616bbe3b3e4f890
git branch = origin/2.17.x
build date = 19-Jul-2020 04:41
geotools version = 23-SNAPSHOT
geotools revision = 3bde6940610d228e01aec9de7c222823a2638664
geowebcache version = 1.17-SNAPSHOT
geowebcache revision = 27eec3fb31b8b4064ce8cc0894fa84d0ff97be61/27eec
hudson build = -1
Since most GeoServer releases require official GeoTools and GeoWebCache releases, the GeoTools and GeoWebCache revisions are usually not needed - the version numbers are used instead.
Release in JIRA¶
Navigate to the GeoServer project page in JIRA.
Add a new version for the next version to be released after the current release. For example, if you are releasing GeoServer 2.11.5, create version 2.11.6. Enter the current date as the Start Date and use the date from the release schedule for the Release Date.
Click in the Actions column for the version you are releasing and select Release. Update the Release Date to the current date when prompted. If there are still unsolved issues remaining in this release, you will be prompted to move them to an unreleased version. If so, choose the new version you created in step 2 above.
If you are cutting the first RC of a series, create the stable branch¶
When creating the first release candidate of a series, there are some extra steps to create the new stable branch and update the version on the main development branch.
Checkout the main development branch and make sure it is up to date and that there are no changes in your local workspace:
git checkout main git pull git status
Create the new stable branch and push it to GitHub; for example, if the main development branch is
2.11-SNAPSHOT
and the remote for the official GeoServer is calledgeoserver
:git checkout -b 2.11.x git push geoserver 2.11.x
Enable GitHub branch protection for the new stable branch: tick “Protect this branch” (only) and press “Save changes”.
Checkout the main development branch:
git checkout main
Update the version in all pom.xml files; for example, if changing the main development branch from
2.17-SNAPSHOT
to2.18-SNAPSHOT
.Edit
build/rename.xml
to update GeoServer, GeoTools and GeoWebCache version numbers:<property name="current" value="2.17"/> <property name="release" value="2.18"/> .. <replacefilter token="23-SNAPSHOT" value="24-SNAPSHOT"/> <replacefilter token="1.17-SNAPSHOT" value="1.18-SNAPSHOT"/>
And then run:
ant -f build/rename.xml
Note
use of sed
To update these files using sed:
find . -name pom.xml -exec sed -i 's/2.11-SNAPSHOT/2.12-SNAPSHOT/g' {} \;
Note
sed
behaves differently on Linux vs. Mac OS X. If running on OS X, the-i
should be followed by'' -e
for each of thesesed
commands.Update release artifact paths and labels, for example, if changing the main development branch from
2.11-SNAPSHOT
to2.12-SNAPSHOT
:sed -i 's/2.11-SNAPSHOT/2.12-SNAPSHOT/g' src/release/bin.xml sed -i 's/2.11-SNAPSHOT/2.12-SNAPSHOT/g' src/release/installer/win/GeoServerEXE.nsi sed -i 's/2.11-SNAPSHOT/2.12-SNAPSHOT/g' src/release/installer/win/wrapper.conf
Note
These can be written as a single
sed
command with multiple files.Update GeoTools dependency; for example if changing from
17-SNAPSHOT
to18-SNAPSHOT
:sed -i 's/17-SNAPSHOT/18-SNAPSHOT/g' src/pom.xml
Update GeoWebCache dependency; for example if changing from
1.11-SNAPSHOT
to1.12-SNAPSHOT
:sed -i 's/1.11-SNAPSHOT/1.12-SNAPSHOT/g' src/pom.xml
Manually update hardcoded versions in configuration files:
doc/en/developer/source/conf.py
doc/en/docguide/source/conf.py
doc/en/user/source/conf.py
Add the new version to the documentation index (
doc/en/index.html
) just after line 105, e.g.:<tr> <td><strong><a href="https://geoserver.org/release/2.12.x/">2.12.x</a></strong></td> <td><a href="2.12.x/en/user/">User Manual</a></td> <td><a href="2.12.x/en/developer/">Developer Manual</a></td> </tr>
Commit the changes and push to the main development branch on GitHub:
git commit -am "Updated version to 2.12-SNAPSHOT, updated GeoTools dependency to 18-SNAPSHOT, updated GeoWebCache dependency to 1.12-SNAPSHOT, and related changes" git push geoserver main
Create the new RC version in JIRA for issues on the main development branch; for example, if the main development branch is now
2.12-SNAPSHOT
, create a Jira version2.12-RC1
for the first release of the2.12.x
seriesUpdate the main, nightly and live-docs jobs on build.geoserver.org:
disable the maintenance jobs, and remove them from the geoserver view
create new jobs, copying from the existing stable jobs, and edit the branch.
modify the last line of the live-docs builds, changing
stable
tomaintain
for the previous stable branch. The new job you created should publish tostable
, and the main development branch will continue to publish tolatest
.
Update the cite tests on build.geoserver.org:
disable the maintenance jobs, and remove them from the geoserver view
create new jobs, copying from the existing main development branch jobs, editing the branch in the build command.
Announce on the developer mailing list that the new stable branch has been created.
Switch to the new branch and update the documentation links, replacing
docs.geoserver.org/latest
withdocs.geoserver.org/2.12.x
(for example):README.md
doc/en/developer/source/conf.py
doc/en/user/source/conf.py
Build the Release¶
Run the geoserver-release job in Jenkins. The job takes the following parameters:
BRANCH
The branch to release from, “2.2.x”, “2.1.x”, etc… This must be a stable branch. Releases are not performed from the main development branch.
REV
The Git revision number to release from, e.g. “24ae10fe662c….”. If left blank, the latest revision (i.e. HEAD) on the
BRANCH
being released is used.
VERSION
The version/name of the release to build, “2.1.4”, “2.2”, etc…
GT_VERSION
The GeoTools version to include in the release. This may be specified as a version number such as “8.0” or “2.7.5”. Alternatively, the version may be specified as a Git branch/revision pair in the form
<branch>@<revision>
. For example “main@36ba65jg53…..”. Finally, this value may be left blank in which the version currently declared in the geoserver pom will be used (usually a SNAPSHOT). Again, this version must be a version number corresponding to an official GeoTools release.
GWC_VERSION
The GeoWebCache version to include in the release. This may be specified as a version number such as “1.3-RC3”. Alternatively, the version may be specified as a Git revision of the form
<branch>@<revision>
such as “master@1b3243jb…”. Finally, this value may be left blank in which the version currently declared in the geoserver pom will be used (usually a SNAPSHOT).Git Again, this version must be a version number corresponding to an official GeoTools release.
GIT_USER
The Git username to use for the release.
GIT_EMAIL
The Git email to use for the release.
This job will checkout the specified branch/revision and build the GeoServer release artifacts against the GeoTools/GeoWebCache versions specified. When successfully complete all release artifacts will be listed under artifacts in the job summary.
Additionally, when the job completes it fires off a job for a windows worker. When this job
completes it will list the .exe
artifacts.
Test the Artifacts¶
Download and try out some of the artifacts from the above location and do a quick smoke test that there are no issues. Engage other developers to help test on the developer list.
It is important to test the artifacts using the minimum supported version of Java (currently Java 11 in September 2023).
Publish the Release¶
Run the geoserver-release-publish in Jenkins. The job takes the following parameters:
VERSION
The version being released. The same value specified for
VERSION
when running thegeoserver-release
job.
BRANCH
The branch being released from. The same value specified for
BRANCH
when running thegeoserver-release
job.
This job will rsync all the artifacts located at:
https://build.geoserver.org/geoserver/release/<RELEASE>
to the SourceForge FRS server. Navigate to SourceForge and verify that the artifacts have been uploaded properly. If this is the latest stable release, set the necessary flags (you will need to be a SourceForge admin user) on the .exe
, .dmg
and .bin
artifacts so that they show up as the appropriate default for users downloading on the Windows, OSX, and Linux platforms. This does not apply to maintenance or support releases.
Release notes¶
This job will tag the release located in:
https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/tags/<RELEASE>
Publish JIRA markdown release notes to GitHub tag:
Select the correct release from JIRA Releases page.
From the release page, locate the Release notes button at the top of the page to open the release notes edit
Generate release notes as markdown:
Select format Markdown
Layout: Issue key with link
Issue types: All
Change the heading to Release notes, and apply the change with Done.
Use Copy to clipboard to obtain the markdown, similar to the following:
# Release notes ### Bug [GEOS-10264](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10264) Address startup warning File option not set for appender \[geoserverlogfile\] [GEOS-10263](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10263) WPSRequestBuilderTest assumes that JTS:area is the first process in the list [GEOS-10255](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10255) i18n user interface inconsistent layout with br tags used for layout [GEOS-10245](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10245) jdbcconfig: prefixedName filter field not updated [GEOS-9950](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-9950) MapPreviewPage logs unable to find property: format.wfs.text/csv continuously ### Improvement [GEOS-10246](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10246) jdbcconfig: performance slow-down from unnecessary transactions ### New Feature [GEOS-10223](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10223) Support MBTiles in OGC Tiles API ### Task [GEOS-10247](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-10247) Reuse of service documentation references for workspace, metadata and default language
Navigate to GitHub tags https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/tags
Locate the new tag from the list, and use
Release title: GeoServer 2.20.0
Write: Paste the markdown from Jira release notes editor
Set as the latest release: only tick this for stable releases, leave unticked for maintenance and support releases
Use Publish release button to publish the release notes.
Create the download page¶
The GeoServer website is managed as a GitHub Pages repository. Follow the instructions in the repository to create a release announcement.
The announcement page header fields include the information required to generate a download page for the release.
Announce the Release¶
Mailing lists¶
Note
This announcement should be made for all releases, including release candidates.
Send both an email to the Developers list and post an announcement on the Discourse Users group announcing the release. The message should be relatively short. You can base it on the blog post. The following is an example:
Subject: GeoServer 2.5.1 Released
The GeoServer team is happy to announce the release of GeoServer 2.5.1.
The release is available for download from:
https://geoserver.org/release/2.5.1/
GeoServer 2.5.1 is the next stable release of GeoServer and is recommended for production deployment.
This release comes with some exciting new features. The new and
noteworthy include:
* By popular request Top/Bottom labels when configuring layer group order
* You can now identify GeoServer “nodes” in a cluster by configuring a label and color in the UI. Documentation and example in the user guide.
* Have you ever run GeoServer and not quite gotten your file permissions correct? GeoServer now has better logging when it cannot your data directory and is required to “fall back” to the embedded data directory during start up.
* We have a new GRIB community module (community modules are not in the release until they pass a QA check, but great to see new development taking shape)
* Documentation on the jp2kak extension now in the user guide
* Additional documentation for the image mosaic in the user guide with tutorials covering the plugin, raster time-series, time and elevation and footprint management.
* WCS 2.0 support continues to improve with DescribeCoverage now supporting null values
* Central Authentication Service (CAS) authentication has received a lot of QA this release and is now available in the GeoServer 2.5.x series.
* This release is made in conjunction with GeoTools 11.1
Along with many other improvements and bug fixes:
* https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=10164
Thanks to Andrea and Jody (GeoSolutions and Boundless) for publishing this release. A very special thanks to all those who contributed bug fixes, new
features, bug reports, and testing to this release.
--
The GeoServer Team
OSGeo Announcement¶
For major releases OSGeo asks that a news item be submitted:
Login to the osgeo.org website, create a news item using the release announcement text above.
And that an announcement is sent to discuss:
Mail major release announcements to discuss@osgeo.org (you will need to subscribe first ).