PMD uses Maven.
Additionally you'll need to have a ~/.m2/toolchains.xml file setup
with jdk 1.6 (for pmd 5.3.x), jdk 1.7 (for pmd 5.4.x and pmd 5.5.x) and jdk 1.8 (for some features in pmd 5.5.x).
See maven toolchains.
A example file can be found here: example-toolchains.xml.
Use maven in the top-level directory:
mvn clean verify
This will create the zip files in the directory pmd-dist/target:
cd pmd-dist/target
ls *.zip
That's all !
Building the maven site is done with the following commands:
mvn clean install -DskipTests=true
mvn install site site:stage -Psite
You'll find the built site in the directory target/staging/.