Hello Kafka users, developers and client-developers, This is the fourth candidate for release of Apache Kafka 4.0.0.
- This is the first release without Apache Zookeeper - The Next Generation of the Consumer Rebalance Protocol is Generally Available - The Transactions Server-Side Defense (Phase 2) is Generally Available - Queues for Kafka is in Early Access - Kafka uses log4j2 - Drop broker and tools support for Java 11 - Remove old client protocol API versions Release notes for the 4.0.0 release: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.0-rc4/RELEASE_NOTES.html *** Please download, test and vote by Monday, March 17, 9am PT. Kafka's KEYS file containing PGP keys we use to sign the release: https://kafka.apache.org/KEYS * Release artifacts to be voted upon (source and binary): https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.0-rc4/ * Docker release artifacts to be voted upon: apache/kafka:4.0.0-rc4 apache/kafka-native:4.0.0-rc4 * Maven artifacts to be voted upon: https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/staging/org/apache/kafka/ * Javadoc: https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.0-rc4/javadoc/ * Tag to be voted upon (off 4.0 branch) is the 4.0.0 tag: https://github.com/apache/kafka/releases/tag/4.0.0-rc4 * Documentation: https://kafka.apache.org/40/documentation.html * Protocol: https://kafka.apache.org/40/protocol.html * Successful CI builds for the 4.0 branch: Unit/integration tests: https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/13846870683 System tests: https://confluent-open-source-kafka-branch-builder-system-test-results.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/trunk/2025-03-13--001.6a14e68a-4791-44eb-a6be-24ce25bc1678--1741882266--apache--4.0--8f765a1886/report.html * Successful Docker Image Github Actions Pipeline for 4.0 branch: Docker Build Test Pipeline (JVM): https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/13852844456 Docker Build Test Pipeline (Native): https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/13853116713 /************************************** Thanks, David Jacot
