Is the buildSessionFactory() Configuration method deprecated in Hibernate?

Yes it is deprecated. Replace your SessionFactory with the following:

In Hibernate 4.0, 4.1, 4.2

private static SessionFactory sessionFactory;
private static ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry;

public static SessionFactory createSessionFactory() {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
    configuration.configure();
    ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry = new ServiceRegistryBuilder().applySettings(
            configuration.getProperties()). buildServiceRegistry();
    sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory(serviceRegistry);
    return sessionFactory;
}

UPDATE:

In Hibernate 4.3 ServiceRegistryBuilder is deprecated. Use the following instead.

serviceRegistry = new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder().applySettings(
            configuration.getProperties()).build();

Yes, it is deprecated. http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/4.0/javadocs/org/hibernate/cfg/Configuration.html#buildSessionFactory() specifically tells you to use the other method you found instead (buildSessionFactory(ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry)) - so use it.

The documentation is copied over from release to release, and likely just hasn't been updated yet (they don't rewrite the manual with every release) - so trust the Javadocs.

The specifics of this change can be viewed at:

• Source code: https://github.com/hibernate/hibernate-core/commit/0b10334e403cf2b11ee60725cc5619eaafecc00b
• Ticket: https://hibernate.onjira.com/browse/HHH-5991

Some additional references:

• http://relation.to/Bloggers/HibernateCore40IsFinal
• http://relation.to/19942.lace
• http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/4.0/devguide/en-US/html/ch07.html#services-registry
• http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/hibernate/index.php?title=Category:Services

or

public class Hbutil {

    private static SessionFactory sessionFactory;
    private static ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry;

    private static SessionFactory configureSessionFactory() throws HibernateException {
        Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
        configuration.configure();
        serviceRegistry = new ServiceRegistryBuilder().applySettings(configuration.getProperties()).buildServiceRegistry();        
        sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory(serviceRegistry);
        return sessionFactory;
    }

    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        return configureSessionFactory();

    }
}

Code verified to work in Hibernate 4.3.0. Notice you can remove the XML filename parameter, or else provide your own path there. This is similar to (but typos corrected) other posts here, but this one is correct.

import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
import org.hibernate.service.ServiceRegistry;    


Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
configuration.configure("/com/rtw/test/hiber/hibernate.cfg.xml");
ServiceRegistry  serviceRegistry = new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder().applySettings(configuration.getProperties()).build();        
    sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory(serviceRegistry);

It's as simple as this: the JBoss docs are not 100% perfectly well-maintained. Go with what the JavaDoc says: buildSessionFactory(ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry).