For the latest information about Apache ZooKeeper, please visit our website at: http://zookeeper.apache.org/ and our wiki, at: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/ZOOKEEPER Full documentation for this release can also be found in docs/index.html --------------------------- Packaging/release artifacts The release artifact contains the following jar file at the top level: zookeeper-<version>.jar - legacy jar file which contains all classes and source files. Prior to version 3.3.0 this was the only jar file available. It has the benefit of having the source included (for debugging purposes) however is also larger as a result The release artifact contains the following jar files in "dist-maven" directory: zookeeper-<version>.jar - bin (binary) jar - contains only class (*.class) files zookeeper-<version>-sources.jar - contains only src (*.java) files zookeeper-<version>-javadoc.jar - contains only javadoc files These bin/src/javadoc jars were added specifically to support Maven/Ivy which have the ability to pull these down automatically as part of your build process. The contents of the legacy jar and the bin + sources jars are the same. As of version 3.3.0, the bin, sources and javadoc jars contained in the dist-maven directory are deployed to the central repository after the release is voted on and approved by the Apache ZooKeeper PMC: https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/zookeeper/zookeeper/