Re: 4.4.0 Release Manager

[Matthias J. Sax]

Hi,

I was just looking into the proposed plan a little bit, and while this 
plan is good considering 4.4 release, it make we worry about 4.5 release 
-- if we aim for 4.5 with our 4-months cycle, it will fall onto the 
holidays again (and we learned from 4.2 and other "holiday" releases, 
that this does not "end well").

So I was wondering if we should shift this all back by one month, making 
it a 5-month cycle for 4.4 instead? I also started a general discussion 
on time-based releases, which will explain my overall reasoning.

Thoughts?


-Matthias

On 5/26/26 11:05 AM, Omnia Ibrahim wrote:
Hi Bill and Lianet, I have updated the schedule to the following
KIP Freeze: (15th June 2026)
Feature Freeze: (6th July 2026)
Code Freeze: (27th July 2026)
At least four weeks of stabilization will follow Code Freeze (taking holidays 
into account), meaning we expect to release no earlier than September 14 2026.
Hopefully this is better

Thanks
Omnia

On 26 May 2026, at 16:29, Lianet Magrans <lian...@apache.org> wrote:

Hi again :) another thought about the high level target.

The proposed initial deadline (KIP freeze on June 8) shortens the 4 month
window (4.3 KIP freeze was Feb 25). Any reason for shortening this or could
we consider updating all dates to keep the ~4 month window between
deadlines and the final release? Release would target mid September
(instead of the proposed September 1st) With 4.3 released May 22nd, we
would still be within a release every 4 months with 4.4 targeting
mid-September. Thoughts?

Thanks!
Lianet

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 10:27 AM Bill Bejeck <bbej...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Omnia,

Thanks for the updated release plan but my intention was that we move the
feature freeze date out ot July 18th and keep the code freeze where it was
previously.

Thanks!
Bill

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 9:41 AM Lianet Magrans <lian...@apache.org> wrote:

Hi Omnia,

Thanks for the update on the code freeze (it brings back the ~3 weeks
after
feature freeze).

But still, we have only 2 weeks between KIP and FF. Should we move the
feature freeze date to allow for ~3 weeks after KIP freeze? (FF ~ June
29).
Similar to what we had for 4.3 (~3 weeks in between each deadline) .

Thanks!
Lianet





On Sat, May 23, 2026 at 3:37 AM <o.g.h.ibra...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Bill,
I updated the code freeze to 20th of July

Thanks
Omnia
Sent from my iPhone

On 22 May 2026, at 19:41, Bill Bejeck <bbej...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Omnia,

Thanks again for the 4.4 release plan.

The release plan has June 23 as the feature freeze with code freeze
of
August 8, which is roughly 6 weeks.  For 4.3 there was 3 weeks
between
feature and code freeze, so can we adjust feature freeze to July
18th?

Thanks!
Bill

On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 2:30 PM Bill Bejeck <bbej...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi Omnia,

Thanks for the release plan.
I've updated it to include KIP-892.

-Bill

On Fri, May 22, 2026 at 2:06 PM Omnia Ibrahim <
o.g.h.ibra...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi everyone thanks for support on this.
I have put an initial release plan to the wiki

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Release+Plan+4.4.0
If
I've missed a KIP, feel free to add it to the list.

The initial goal is to aim for Sep 2026 for this release and KIP
freeze
8th Jun 2026.

Let me know if you have any questions.

On 15 May 2026, at 09:04, Christo Lolov <christolo...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hello,

Thanks for stepping forward Omnia, +1 from me!

Best,
Christo

On Fri, 15 May 2026 at 02:52, Ming-Yen Chung <
mingyen...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi all,

+1, thanks Omnia for running 4.4 release!

I'd also like to push KIP-1232: Deprecate broker.id config into
the
4.4
release.

Best,
Ming-Yen

Muralidhar Basani via dev <dev@kafka.apache.org> 於 2026年5月15日週五
上午3:57寫道：

Hi all,

Thanks Omnia for volunteering for 4.4.0.
+1 from me too.

I'd also like to add KIP-1325 (adding a new streams config to
handle
restore-state path) to 4.4 release.

Thanks,
Murali

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 1:59 PM TaiJu Wu <tjwu1...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi all,

+1 , thanks Omnia for running 4.4 release!

Best,
TaiJuWu

黃竣陽 <s7133...@gmail.com> 於 2026年5月14日週四 下午7:52寫道：

Hi all,

+1

Thanks Omnia for running 4.4 release!

And I’d also like to push KIP-1327: Prevent Hot Data Loss on
Partition
Expansion for Latest Policy
into the 4.4 release.

Best Regards,
Jiunn-Yang

PoAn Yang <yangp...@gmail.com> 於 2026年5月14日 晚上7:37 寫道：

Hi all,

Thanks Omnia for running 4.4 release! +1 from me.

Regards,
PoAn

On May 14, 2026, at 3:59 AM, Lianet Magrans <
lian...@apache.org

wrote:

Hi all,

Thanks Omnia for volunteering for 4.4! +1 from me.

We're working on KIP-1332: Dynamic memory allocation for the
Kafka
producer, under discussion at the moment but aiming at a
phased
delivery
starting in 4.4 (I updated the jiras)

Best!
Lianet

On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 7:35 AM Omnia Ibrahim <
o.g.h.ibra...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Thanks Chia for starting the thread and for the support
with
my
first
release process,

I had a quick look into open and resolved issues on jira
and
I
can
see
we
have
66 resolved tickets.
43 open tickets (with status not resolved, or closed)

The KIPs I can see marked for 4.4.0, have sub-tasks marked
for
4.4.0
or
remaining followups are
KIP-1191: Dead-letter queues for share groups <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1191%3A+Dead-letter+queues+for+share+groups

majority of it has been resolved and marked for 4.4.0
except
single
remaining jira which in progress
KIP-892: Transactional Semantics for StateStores <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-892%3A+Transactional+Semantics+for+StateStores

is also marked for 4.4.0 but it has too many in-progress
tasks
at
the
moment
KIP-1263: Group Coordinator Assignment Batching and
Offload <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1263%3A+Group+Coordinator+Assignment+Batching+and+Offload

it has a couple of open jiras one of them marked for 4.4.0
Single resolved jira for KIP-1226: Introducing Share
Partition
Lag
Persistence and Retrieval <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1226%3A+Introducing+Share+Partition+Lag+Persistence+and+Retrieval

Open Jira for KIP-1298: Per-Resource-Type Authorization for
LIST_CONFIG_RESOURCES <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1298%3A+Per-Resource-Type+Authorization+for+LIST_CONFIG_RESOURCES?src=jira

but this still under discussion
Open Jira for KIP-1170: Unify cluster metadata
bootstrapping
<







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1170%3A+Unify+cluster+metadata+bootstrapping?src=jira

Open Jira for KIP-1260: Enable ProducerPerformance to abort
transactions <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1260%3A+Enable+ProducerPerformance+to+abort+transactions

but this still under discussion
KIP-939: Support Participation in 2PC <







https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-939%3A+Support+Participation+in+2PC

marked for 4.4.0 but I can it still has couple of jiras
still
not
resolved
Some open jiras as followup for KIP-853

Best
Omnia

On 13 May 2026, at 11:21, Chia-Ping Tsai <
chia7...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi all,

While there are still a few pending RCs, I'd like to start
the
discussion
for the 4.4.0 Release Manager. Omnia has raised her hand
offline,
and
we
(myself and our team) are fully committed to supporting
her
throughout
her
first release process.

Of course, please feel free to shout out if anyone else is
also
interested
in volunteering or co-managing this release.

Best, Chia-Ping