Hi all, Now that 3.9.0 is released and 4.0.x is progressing, I'd like to understand everyone's expectations about the 3.9.x branch, and ask for a specific consensus on Java 23 support.
Some context that I think is relevant to the discussion: * KIP-1006 [1] proposes a backwards-compatible strategy for handling the ongoing removal of the SecurityManager, which is merged and due to release in 4.0.0 [2]. * KIP-1012 [3] rejected ongoing parallel feature development on a 3.x branch while having trunk on 4.x. * During the 3.9.0 release, the patch [2] was rejected [4] due to being a new feature which did not meet the feature freeze deadline. * Other than the SecurityManager removal, there are additional PRs which would also need to be backported for full Java 23 support [5] including a Scala patch upgrade. * Downstream users are asking for a backport [6] because adding support for Java 23 would obligate them to also include the 4.0 breaking changes. So while adding Java version support in the past has been a KIP-less feature and normally only appears in the next version, it happens to align with a major version bump this time. This will cause additional pain for users if we do not elect to backport this. Thanks, Greg [1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1006%3A+Remove+SecurityManager+Support [2] https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/16522 [3] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-1012%3A+The+need+for+a+Kafka+3.8+and+3.9+release [4] https://lists.apache.org/thread/xy5rwd1w274qgpwf3qxxnzlqpoly5d4p [5] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-17638 [6] https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/16522#issuecomment-2488340682
