IMO if we haven't invested the work necessary to continually publish images (especially the Docker official image) with new releases, we should remove them. We don't want people running older versions of our software because that's what they found on Docker, and then filing bug requests for no-longer-supported versions.
On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 7:50 AM Luke Chen <show...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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 > > >
