Upgrade build configuration for publishing to Maven Central

[gavvvr]

This is a task to do some cleanup and upgrade build configuration related to Maven Central publishing.

Right now in Occurrent Maven configuration I can see traces of 3 different plugins related to this:

• org.sonatype.plugins:nexus-staging-maven-plugin (src)
• org.sonatype.central:central-publishing-maven-plugin (src, docs)
• and built-in org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-deploy-plugin, configured with <distributionManagement> section (src, docs)

In summer 2025 OSSRH service has been shut down, and I guess nexus-staging-maven-plugin no longer makes sense.
The Maven Central instructions for publishing with Maven recommends using central-publishing-maven-plugin. This one should get upgraded and properly configured. Not sure, what will be the role of maven-deploy-plugin in this configuration, but at least the whole deployment process with central-publishing-maven-plugin starts with mvn deploy default command.

[gavvvr]

Even though I don't see any deprecation notice for nexus-staging-maven-plugin, there are many signals that it should no longer be used for deployments to Maven Central.

This article says that nexus-staging-maven-plugin is dead and should get replaced with central-publishing-maven-plugin.

Other articles also suggest to do the same replacement:

• https://dev.to/mxro/migrating-maven-namespace-to-central-portal-fgp#updating-maven-plugin
• https://ralph.blog.imixs.com/2025/07/07/maven-sonatype-central-repository/
• https://blog.seguri.dev/posts/from-legacy-ossrh-to-central-portal/

Here is an example OSS project, that also replaced nexus-staging-maven-plugin with central-publishing-maven-plugin after OSSRH sunset:
strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator#11480