Principle:Apache Kafka Release Tag And Vote
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Release_Engineering, Governance |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-09 12:00 GMT |
Overview
A governance process that publishes the release candidate tag and initiates the community vote for release approval.
Description
Release Tag and Vote is the final step of release candidate staging. It pushes the annotated git tag to the remote repository, making the exact source commit publicly identifiable, and generates a vote email template for the release manager to send to the project mailing lists. Apache policy requires a minimum 72-hour voting window with majority PMC approval before a release can be finalized.
Usage
Use this principle as the final step after all artifacts are staged in SVN and Maven. The generated vote email contains links to all staged artifacts and documentation for community review.
Theoretical Basis
The process follows Apache governance requirements:
- Tag Push: Push the annotated git tag to the remote repository to make the release point publicly visible.
- Vote Email Generation: Generate a standardized email template containing links to all artifacts, documentation, Javadoc, and CI builds.
- Community Vote: The release manager sends the email to dev@, users@, and kafka-clients@ mailing lists, initiating a minimum 72-hour vote.