# How to get a free basic license.key for building?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [November 21, 2018, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693 "2018-11-21T11:26:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zyx\_0312](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zyx_0312)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2018, 11:26am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693/1 "2018-11-21T11:26:55Z")
Hi all:
I want to create a elasticsearch release build by command:
> gradle assemble -Dbuild.snapshot=false
But I get an error message like this:
> Property license.key must be set for release build
I didn't find how to get the free basic license.key from:
> **[Subscriptions | Elastic Stack Products & Support | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/subscriptions)**
>
> See subscription levels, pricing, and tiered features for on-prem deployments of the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch Kibana, Beats, and Logstash), Elastic Cloud, and Elastic Cloud Enterprise.
And I want build the package instead of downloading package directly.
If I just want create a release build based on a free basic license.key, how to get the free basic license.key? And how to use it for building?
It's acceptable for me with some missing features based on a free basic license.key, like x-pack and so on.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693/2 "2018-11-21T14:04:53Z")
The licence key it needs here is not the same thing as the licence that the subscriptions talk about, it's a signing key:
> [@Building OSS release version of Elastic Search 6.3.1](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/building-oss-release-version-of-elastic-search-6-3-1/142041/9):
>
> For the record (and future readers), you need a signing key to build a non-snapshot version.
I think this is only required to build X-pack, but I am not sure how to go about building _just_ the non-X-pack components any more.
Why do you want to produce your own release build? The only real difference is the `-SNAPSHOT` in the version number, and I think it's important to use this to see the difference between official versions (built in a very carefully controlled environment) and versions built elsewhere.
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### Author:  [@zyx\_0312](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zyx_0312)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693/3 "2018-11-23T04:02:56Z")
I noticed that there is an elasticsearch-oss-\*.tar.gz in the path of
> distribution/archives/oss-tar/build/distributions
I think it's a built without x-pack, maybe the license.key is not required if I just need oss built.
Like the way to build logstash:
> ./gradlew assembleTarDistribution
> ./gradlew assembleOssTarDistribution
But I don't know the oss built command either.
I will consider your suggestion. Thanks for your reply!
---
### Author:  [@DavidTurner](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/DavidTurner)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2018, 9:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693/4 "2018-11-23T09:49:47Z")
You can build just `elasticsearch-oss-*.tar.gz` with `./gradlew buildOssTar` but this also doesn't work with `-Dbuild.snapshot=false`.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-get-a-free-basic-license-key-for-building/157693/5 "2018-12-21T09:58:24Z")
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