[Build] Add Jenkins pipeline to improve release preparation automation

[HannesWell]

This introduces a new Jenkins job Prepare next Development Cycle that carries out many of the preparation tasks and aims to further enhance the release preparation automation. This includes

• Updating the version of the Maven parent, all references to it and the Eclipse products
• Updating the release version across build scripts
• Updating the previous release version to the current Release-Candidate

These tasks are currently done partly manually and partly automatically, but through a mixture of the (hidden) Jenkins job to create-milestones and distributed GH workflows that perform the Maven version updates upon the creation of new milestones.
Having one central job simplifies the understanding of the preparation process.

This PR is just the first step and it's the goal to move more preparation steps into this Jenkins job in order to automate currently manually executed step or to reduce the number of involved Jenkins jobs. All of this also ensures that the steps are always executed in the right order.

When applying the version updates, the script 'getPreviousRelease.sh' is not considered as it seems to be unused and is intended to be removed soon.

[HannesWell]

This is currently a draft, but I have tested most steps of it already and plan to conduct a (almost) complete test of it tomorrow.

[HannesWell]

This is currently a draft, but I have tested most steps of it already and plan to conduct a (almost) complete test of it tomorrow.

The testing was successful and this is ready for submission.

I have also asked the infra team to associate the eclipse-releng-bot mail with the corresponding bot account and make sure that it passes the ECA:

• https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/6227

In I-builds commits with that mail are pushed to the releng.aggregator directly without ECA validation, which is probably why this was never noticed.

[HannesWell]

The verification build does not test this, thus submitting this now.

With this also the updateRelease GH workflows in all submodule repositories, like e.g. https://github.com/eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde/blob/master/.github/workflows/updateRelease.yml, becomes obsolete (and unusable), as intended. I'll create PRs to remove these dangling references soon.

[HannesWell]

Most of the build worked, but it wasn't a complete success:

• Preparation work for 4.37(2025-09) and open master for development #3070 (comment)

Additionally the following changes are missing:

• Update release version 4.37 #3087

[MohananRahul]

Additionally the following changes are missing:

• Update release version 4.37 #3087

Also :
eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde#1796
eclipse-equinox/p2#860

[HannesWell]

This is missing as well:

• Update Comparator repo to 4.37-I-builds repo #3091

[HannesWell]

The automated preparation pipeline also missed

• Update builds and repo cleanup scripts for 4.37 #3086

and could also do (at least the job-dsl update would be simple)

• Create new test jobs for 4.37 #3076

[HannesWell]

The encountered definitiv bugs in the release preparation pipeline have been fixed with

• [Build] Fix bugs in release preparation pipeline #3144

The new stream repositories are now properly created, initially with a reference to the previous RC, via

• [Build] Create new stream repositories in release preparation pipeline #3146

and this reference is also properly cleaned up when successful I builds are added since

• [Build] Remove old builds from composite p2-repo when adding new ones #3153

With that the preparation pipeline should be fully functional in the sense that all kind of version increments and preparatory steps are performed in a way that the Maven parent version increments changes created for all sub-modules should also receive the then required version increments automatically.

From now on the pipeline can be extended to also handle cases of missing files we have collected in the previous round. Precisely these are the following files

• cje-production/cleaners/cleanupNightlyRepo.sh
  as updated in Update builds and repo cleanup scripts for 4.37 #3086
  -> File is entirely removed (and no other files needs to be updated instead), via
  • [Build] Remove old builds from composite p2-repo when adding new ones #3153
• eclipse-platform-sources/pom.xml
  as updated in Update release version 4.37 #3087
  -> File is entirely removed (and no other files needs to be updated instead), via
  • Remove now obsolete eclipse-platform-sources Maven project #3154
• eclipse.platform.releng/features/org.eclipse.platform-feature/rootfiles/.eclipseproduct
  as updated in Update release version 4.37 #3087
  --> Update implemented in
  • [Build] Add missing version updates in release preparation pipeline #3164
• cje-production/buildproperties.txt
  as updated in Update Comparator repo to 4.37-I-builds repo #3091
  --> Update implemented in
  • [Build] Add missing version updates in release preparation pipeline #3164
• cje-production/scripts/checkComposites/checkComposites.sh
  as updated in Update Comparator repo to 4.37-I-builds repo #3091
  -> File is entirely removed (and no other files needs to be updated instead), via
  • [Build] Add dedicated job to modify a p2 composite repository #3165
• JenkinsJobs/JobDSL.json
  as updated in Create new test jobs for 4.37 #3076
  --> Update implemented in
  • [RelEng] Update build configuration in release preparation pipeline #3255
• JenkinsJobs/Builds/FOLDER.groovy
  as updated in Create new test jobs for 4.37 #3076
  --> Update implemented in
  • [RelEng] Update build configuration in release preparation pipeline #3255
• eclipse.pde/build/org.eclipse.pde.build.tests/test-sdk.product
  as updated in Update release version 4.37 eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde#1796
  -> File is entirely removed (and no other files needs to be updated instead), via
  • Avoid need for dedicate product definitions for pde.build.tests eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde#1840

Some of these missing updates can be made obsolete by replacing the updated files with something that doesn't need to be updated and some have to be added to the preparation pipeline. I'll update this comment with the corresponding solutions when they are implemented.