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ReleaseProcess.md

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+# Releasing Pact-JVM
+
+The Pact-JVM project releases three types of artifacts: Java JAR files to Maven Central, a Gradle plugin to plugins.gradle.org
+and Pact files to pact-foundation.pact.dius.com.au.
+
+## 1. Required Credentials and Software
+
+### Getting access to release to Maven Central
+
+The Maven Central repository is provided by Sonatype. You need to signup to their Jira at 
+https://issues.sonatype.org/secure/Signup!default.jspa and then get a Pact-JVM administrator to raise a ticket
+to get your user permission to publish to the `au.com.dius` project.
+
+### Access to Gradle plugin portal
+
+You need to get an API key to publish the Pact-JVM Gradle plugin from the current owner of the plugin on the plugin 
+portal.
+
+### Getting access to the pact-foundation.pact.dius.com.au broker
+
+You can request access to the broker by emailing [email protected].
+
+### Create a PGP key
+
+Maven Central has a requirement that all artifacts are signed. You need to create a GPG key for this.
+
+### Install JDK 8
+
+The JAR files must be built with JDK 8. You need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to this version
+of the JDK. 
+
+## 2. Setting up your local Gradle
+
+All the credentials from step 1 need to go into your local gradle property file. For UNIX based systems, this will
+be in `~/.gradle/gradle.properties`.
+
+```
+sonatypeUsername              # this is the username you signed up with at the Sonatype Jira
+sonatypePassword              # this is your sonatype Jira password
+gradle.publish.key            # this is the Gradle plugin portal API key
+gradle.publish.secret         # this is the Gradle plugin portal API key secret
+signing.keyId                 # this is your GPG key ID
+signing.password              # GPG key password
+signing.secretKeyRingFile     # Path to the GPG secret key file
+pactBrokerToken               # This is the API token to pact-foundation.pact.dius.com.au broker
+```
+
+## 3. Running the release script
+
+You can run the release script `releasePrep.groovy` in the root of the project. It will prompt you for all
+the steps to run. For most of the time you can just hit ENTER for the default values.
+
+If any step fails, you can re-run the script once you have fixed the issue and select `n` for all the steps already run to skip them.
+Most of the steps should only ever be run once for a particular version.
+
+## 4. Release the artifacts on Maven Central
+
+Log onto oss.sonatype.org and select `Staging Repositories` from the menu on the left hand side. You should see a new
+staging repository for `au.com.dius` listed. Select the repository and select the Close button. This will close the
+repository and run the Maven Central rules.
+
+Once the repository is successfully closed (it takes a few minutes), select the repository again and select the Release button.
+
+## 5. Create a Github release
+
+Create a Github release from the tag created by the release script. The contents should be populated with the
+values from the CHANGELOG.md that the release script created.