We do need a PMC member to sign the release artifacts. Aside from that, IMHO there is a lot that can be done to improve the automation around producing the release artifacts and preparing the release branch.
As Krisztian can attest, producing a release currently requires a _lot_ of human time (and time is money). Now that we've gone through this process to produce 28 major and patch releases, I think it is time (and probably well overdue) to improve the release artifact "stamping" process to be more fully automated so that all that's required of a PMC member is to obtain the staged artifacts from a secure location, sign them, and then push them to ASF dist. On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 3:47 PM Keerat Singh <keer...@bitquilltech.com> wrote: > > Hi Wes, > > Is it only the PMC members that can volunteer to drive this or can someone > from the community volunteer and drive as well if they desire to have a > release sooner? > > I see that the release process has a fairly comprehensive checklist of tasks > here(https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/ARROW/Release+Management+Guide), > but there are certain requirements, which not all community members will be > able to satisfy, for e.g: > > Being a committer to be able to push to dist and maven repository > A GPG key in the Apache Web of Trust (cross-signed by other Apache > committers/PMC members) to sign the artifacts > > What parts of the release could a community volunteer help with, given they > are not able to satisfy certain release requirements? > > Regards, > Keerat > > On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 5:27 AM Wes McKinney <wesmck...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I think to release more often, a few things are necessary: >> >> - Other organizations / PMC members must volunteer more time to drive >> releases and the process around them. My team (and Krisztian in particular) >> together with Kou and Uwe have done the majority of this work the last >> couple of years. >> >> - Some investments in improving the release tooling to be more automated >> and less error prone must be made. We’ve talked for example about tearing >> out the Maven release machinery for Java, that would be a significant >> benefit. >> >> On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 12:45 AM Micah Kornfield <emkornfi...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> > > >> > > Are there any plans for a more frequent release cadence? >> > >> > Not to my knowledge. The release process is still relatively heavy weight. >> > >> > Do we have a guide for what goes into major releases vs. minor releases >> > > vs. patch releases? >> > >> > In the current regime [1] we don't expect minor release. So major releases >> > should contain any new features. Patch release should only contain >> > regression fixes. >> > >> > [1] https://arrow.apache.org/docs/format/Versioning.html >> > >> > On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 8:16 PM James Duong <jam...@bitquilltech.com> >> > wrote: >> > >> > > Hello, >> > > >> > > My understanding is that Arrow releases are 3 months apart. Are there any >> > > plans for a more frequent release cadence? Do we have a guide for what >> > goes >> > > into major releases vs. minor releases vs. patch releases? >> > > >> > > Thanks, >> > > >> > > -- >> > > >> > > *James Duong* >> > > Lead Software Developer >> > > Bit Quill Technologies Inc. >> > > Direct: +1.604.562.6082 | jam...@bitquilltech.com >> > > https://www.bitquilltech.com >> > > >> > > This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and >> > may >> > > contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized >> > review, >> > > use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the >> > > intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy >> > > all copies of the original message. Thank you. >> > > >> >
