Hi Mickael, Thanks for starting this discussion.
Regarding the native image, I agree that it wouldn't be helpful if there isn't an easy way to generate a metadata file that covers all Kafka functionality. I can anticipate similar issues, such as KAFKA-19583 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-19583> and KAFKA-19584 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-19584>, will likely arise from time to time. Here is the information about the reachability metadata in the native image.[1] Regarding the docker official image, given we already missed the release for v3.8.0, v3.8.1, v3.9.0, v3.9.1, v4.0.0 and it seems no one is complaining it, maybe it is a sign that we don't have to bother to release it? It seems the Apache Kafka JVM image is good enough for the community in my opinion. [1] https://github.com/apache/kafka/tree/trunk/docker/native#native-image-reachability-metadata Thank you. Luke On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 6:33 PM Mickael Maison <mickael.mai...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > We currently have 3 types of container images: > - Apache Kafka JVM > - Apache Kafka Native, added via KIP-974 [0] > - Docker Official, added via KIP-1028 [1] > > However we've not really put effort in maintaining the Native and > Docker Official images. > > For KIP-974, the kafka-native images are advertised as not for > production. There is also no defined plan to make them > production-ready in the future. The native images rely on generated > metadata files to function. Unfortunately we don't have the infra and > tooling in GitHub to update these files. As a matter of fact, it seems > the native images don't work when SASL is enabled [2, 3]. > > For KIP-1028, we only produced a Docker Official image for Kafka 3.7.0 > [4]. I can't seem to find it on DockerHub. There was a PR for 3.8.0 > but it was never merged [5]. We also did not update the release > process, so we never published newer images. > From the KIP, the main benefit is that these images are "Actively > rebuild for updates and security fixes" but from reading the KIP it's > not clear to me who's doing the rebuilding. > > In both cases, it's worth considering whether we want to keep these > and in that case ensure we properly maintain them, or if we decide we > can't do it. > > Thanks, > Mickael > > 0: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/x/KZizDw > 1: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/x/0AmpEQ > 2: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-19583 > 3: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-19584 > 4: > https://github.com/apache/kafka/tree/trunk/docker/docker_official_images > 5: https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/16768 >
