nchammas commented on code in PR #702: URL: https://github.com/apache/spark-website/pull/702#discussion_r3589719642
########## releases/_posts/2026-07-14-spark-release-4-2-0.md: ########## @@ -11,8 +11,505 @@ meta: _wpas_done_all: '1' --- -Apache Spark 4.2.0 is a new feature release. It introduces new functionality and improvements. We encourage users to try it and provide feedback. +Apache Spark 4.2.0 is the third release of the Spark 4.x line. With significant contributions from the open-source community, this release addressed over 1,700 Jira tickets with contributions from more than 250 individuals. -You can find the list of resolved issues and detailed changes in the [JIRA release notes](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12315420&version=12356380). +This release expands Spark's data types and SQL surface, deepens Data Source V2, and continues to make PySpark faster and Spark Connect more capable. -We would like to acknowledge all community members for contributing patches and features to this release. +This release adds native geospatial support: new `GEOMETRY` and `GEOGRAPHY` types with `ST_*` functions, WKB/WKT and Parquet read/write, and an SRID registry — enabled by default. + +This release introduces Change Data Capture (CDC): a new SQL `CHANGES` clause plus DataFrame, PySpark, and Spark Connect APIs to read row-level changes in batch and streaming, and Auto CDC in Spark Declarative Pipelines for declarative SCD Type 1 upserts. + +Arrow-optimized Python UDFs and Arrow-based PySpark IPC are now enabled by default, bringing faster, lower-overhead Python execution to every PySpark user. + +Data Source V2 gains transaction management, schema evolution for `INSERT`, richer operation metrics, and enhanced partition-stats filtering, and SQL adds a path-based name-resolution model (`SET PATH`, qualified names, `CURRENT_PATH()`) and metric views for semantic modeling. + +To download Apache Spark 4.2.0, please visit the [downloads](https://spark.apache.org/downloads.html) page. For [detailed changes](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/SPARK/versions/12356380), you can consult JIRA. + +* This will become a table of contents (this text will be scraped). +{:toc} + +### Highlights Review Comment: Random question but: Do we want to make this "highlights" section a convention for `MINOR` releases going forward? i.e. Any release matching `*.*.0`. We could add a simple linter for it and catch when a release is about to go out without this section. The linter could also ensure that the version in the release URL matches `A-B-C` and not `A.B.C.`. Happy to add that. -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
