Environment:Apache Kafka Release Toolchain Environment

Knowledge Sources	Apache Kafka release/requirements.txt release/release.py
Domains	Infrastructure, Release_Engineering
Last Updated	2026-02-09 12:00 GMT

Overview

Python 3 environment with GPG, SVN, Git, and Gradle for executing the Apache Kafka release candidate staging process.

Description

The Release Toolchain Environment provides all tools required to create, sign, stage, and publish an Apache Kafka release candidate. It includes Python 3 with the `jira` and `jproperties` libraries (for JIRA interaction and Java properties file parsing), GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) for cryptographic signing, Apache Subversion (SVN) for staging artifacts to the ASF distribution repository, Git for branch and tag management, and Gradle for building the Kafka distribution. The release process is orchestrated by `release/release.py`, which invokes these tools in sequence.

Usage

Use this environment when executing the Release Candidate Staging workflow. All 8 steps of the release process (GPG validation, branch preparation, artifact building, release notes generation, signing, SVN staging, Maven publishing, and vote template creation) depend on this environment.

System Requirements

Category	Requirement	Notes
OS	Linux or macOS	Release scripts use Unix-style paths and tools
Python	Python 3.x	Required for release scripts
Java	JDK 11+	Required for Gradle builds
GPG	GNU Privacy Guard	Must have a valid GPG key configured
SVN	Apache Subversion	For staging to dist.apache.org
Git	Git CLI	For branch/tag management
Gradle	9.2.1 (via wrapper)	Bundled with the repository
Network	Internet access	Required for JIRA API, SVN, Maven Central

Dependencies

System Packages

`python3`
`gpg` (GNU Privacy Guard)
`gpgconf` (GPG configuration utility)
`svn` (Apache Subversion)
`git`
`java` >= 11

Python Packages

`jira` == 3.8.0
`jproperties` == 2.1.1

Credentials

The following credentials must be available:

GPG Key: A valid GPG signing key must be present in the user's keyring with a known passphrase.
ASF SVN Access: Write access to `https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka` (ASF committer credentials).
Maven Credentials: `mavenUsername` and `mavenPassword` Gradle properties for Maven Central staging.
JIRA Access: Credentials for Apache JIRA (used by `jira` Python library for release notes).

Quick Install

# Install Python dependencies for release tooling
pip install jira==3.8.0 jproperties==2.1.1

# Verify GPG key
gpg --list-keys

# Verify SVN access
svn info https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka

Code Evidence

Python dependencies from `release/requirements.txt:18-19`:

jira==3.8.0
jproperties==2.1.1

GPG validation from `release/gpg.py:29-56`:

def key_exists(key):
    cmd(f"Checking for GPG key {key}",
        f"gpg --list-keys {key}",
        shell=True)

def valid_passphrase(key, passphrase):
    cmd(f"Validating GPG passphrase for key {key}",
        f"echo test | gpg --batch --pinentry-mode loopback --passphrase {passphrase} "
        f"-u {key} --armor --detach-sig --output /dev/null",
        shell=True)

SVN staging from `release/svn.py:28-45`:

SVN_DEV_URL = "https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka"

def commit_artifacts(artifacts_dir, svn_dir, version, rc_num):
    cmd(f"Checking out SVN dev dir",
        f"svn checkout {SVN_DEV_URL} {svn_dir}",
        shell=True)

Release work directory choice from `release/release.py:303-305`:

# Note that we don't use tempfile here because mkdtemp causes problems
# with being able to determine the absolute path to a file.
work_dir = os.path.join(repo_dir, ".release_work_dir")

Common Errors

Error Message	Cause	Solution
`gpg: No secret key`	GPG key not in keyring	Import your GPG key with `gpg --import`
`svn: E170013: Unable to connect`	SVN access denied	Verify ASF committer credentials
`jira.exceptions.JIRAError: 401`	Invalid JIRA credentials	Check JIRA authentication credentials
`FileNotFoundError: .release_work_dir`	First run without work directory	Script auto-creates; ensure write permissions in repo root

Compatibility Notes

macOS: Ensure GPG suite is installed (e.g., via `brew install gnupg`).
Python 2: Not supported; release scripts require Python 3.
Gradle Wrapper: The repository bundles Gradle 9.2.1 via the wrapper; no separate Gradle install needed.
SVN: Required only for the artifact staging step; not needed for local testing.

Related Pages

Page Connections

Double-click a node to navigate. Hold to expand connections.

Principle

Implementation

Heuristic

Environment