Thanks Christo for running the release, congratulations to everyone for the release!
Regards, Apoorv Mittal On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 9:39 PM Chia-Ping Tsai <[email protected]> wrote: > you are the best! Christo > > Mickael Maison <[email protected]> 於 2026年2月18日週三 上午1:19寫道： > > > Thanks Christo for running the release, and thanks to all the > contributors! > > > > On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 5:20 PM Andrew Schofield > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi Christo, > > > This is awesome. Thanks for running the release. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Andrew > > > > > > > On 17 Feb 2026, at 14:48, Christo Lolov <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > The Apache Kafka community is pleased to announce the release for > > > > Apache Kafka 4.2.0 > > > > > > > > This release has many exciting changes: > > > > > > > > * Kafka Queues (Share Groups) is now production-ready with new > > > > features like the RENEW acknowledgement type for extended processing > > > > times, adaptive batching for share coordinators, soft and strict > > > > enforcements of quantity of fetched records, and comprehensive lag > > > > metrics. > > > > * Kafka Streams brings the server-side rebalance protocol to GA with > a > > > > limited feature set, adds dead letter queue support in exception > > > > handlers, introduces anchored wall-clock punctuation for > deterministic > > > > scheduling, and gives users full control over whether to send a leave > > > > group request on closing. > > > > * This release also delivers significant improvements to consistency > > > > and observability: CLI tools now feature standardized arguments like > > > > –bootstrap-server across all tools, metric naming has been corrected > > > > to follow the kafka.COMPONENT convention, and new idle ratio metrics > > > > provide better visibility into controller and MetadataLoader > > > > performance. > > > > * Security is enhanced with a new allowlist connector client > > > > configuration override policy, while thread-safety improvements to > > > > RecordHeader eliminate concurrency risks. > > > > * Additional highlights include external schema support in > > > > JsonConverter for reduced message sizes, dynamic configuration for > > > > remote log manager thread pools, adaptive batching in group > > > > coordinators, and rack ID exposure in the Admin API for consumer and > > > > share group members. > > > > > > > > All of the changes in this release can be found in the release notes: > > > > https://www.apache.org/dist/kafka/4.2.0/RELEASE_NOTES.html > > > > > > > > An overview of the release can be found in our announcement blog > post: > > > > https://kafka.apache.org/blog > > > > > > > > You can download the source and binary release (Scala 2.13) from: > > > > https://kafka.apache.org/downloads#4.2.0 > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform with four core APIs: > > > > > > > > ** The Producer API allows an application to publish a stream of > > records to > > > > one or more Kafka topics. > > > > > > > > ** The Consumer API allows an application to subscribe to one or more > > > > topics and process the stream of records produced to them. > > > > > > > > ** The Streams API allows an application to act as a stream > processor, > > > > consuming an input stream from one or more topics and producing an > > > > output stream to one or more output topics, effectively transforming > > the > > > > input streams to output streams. > > > > > > > > ** The Connector API allows building and running reusable producers > or > > > > consumers that connect Kafka topics to existing applications or data > > > > systems. For example, a connector to a relational database might > > > > capture every change to a table. > > > > > > > > > > > > With these APIs, Kafka can be used for two broad classes of > > application: > > > > > > > > ** Building real-time streaming data pipelines that reliably get data > > > > between systems or applications. > > > > > > > > ** Building real-time streaming applications that transform or react > > > > to the streams of data. > > > > > > > > > > > > Apache Kafka is in use at large and small companies worldwide, > > including > > > > Capital One, Goldman Sachs, ING, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pinterest, > > Rabobank, > > > > Target, The New York Times, Uber, Yelp, and Zalando, among others. > > > > > > > > A big thank you for the following 155 contributors to this release! > > > > (Please report an unintended omission) > > > > > > > > Abhi Tiwari, Abhijeet Kumar, Abhinav Dixit, Abhiram98, Alex, Alieh > > > > Saeedi, ally heev, Alyssa Huang, Andrew J Schofield, Anton Vasanth, > > > > Apoorv Mittal, Arpit Goyal, Artem Livshits, Bill Bejeck, Bolin Lin, > > > > Bruno Cadonna, Calvin Liu, Chang-Chi Hsu, Chang-Yu Huang, Chia-Ping > > > > Tsai, Chih-Yuan Chien, Chirag Wadhwa, Chris Egerton, Christo Lolov, > > > > Chuckame, Clemens Hutter, Colin Patrick McCabe, d00791190, Dave > > > > Troiano, David Arthur, David Jacot, Deep Golani, Dejan Stojadinović, > > > > devtrace404, Dmitry Werner, Dongnuo Lyu, Donny Nadolny, Eduwer > > > > Camacaro, Elizabeth Bennett, EME, Eric Chang, Erik Anderson, Evan > > > > Zhou, Evgeniy Kuvardin, farzan ghalami, Fatih, Federico Valeri, > > > > Gantigmaa Selenge, Gasparina Damien, Gaurav Narula, Genseric Ghiro, > > > > George Wu, Greg Harris, Harish Vishwanath, Herman Kolstad Jakobsen, > > > > Hong-Yi Chen, Ismael Juma, Izzy Harker, Jared Harley, Jhen-Yung Hsu, > > > > Jian, Jim Galasyn, Jimmy Wang, Jing-Jia Hung, Jinhe Zhang, Joel > > > > Hamill, Jonah Hooper, Josep Prat, José Armando García Sancio, Juha > > > > Mynttinen, Jun Rao, Justine Olshan, k-apol, Kamal Chandraprakash, > > > > Kaushik Raina, keemsisi, Ken Huang, Kevin Wu, Kirk True, knoxy5467, > > > > KTKTK-HZ, Kuan-Po Tseng, Lan Ding, Levani Kokhreidze, Liam > > > > Clarke-Hutchinson, Lianet Magrans, Linsiyuan9, Logan Zhu, lorcan, > Lord > > > > of Abyss, Lucas Brutschy, Lucy Liu, Luke Chen, Mahsa Seifikar, > > > > majialong, Manikumar Reddy, Maros Orsak, Masahiro Mori, Mason Chen, > > > > Matt Welch, Matthias J. Sax, Michael Knox, Michael Morris, Mickael > > > > Maison, Ming-Yen Chung, NeatGuyCoding, Nick Guo, NICOLAS GUYOMAR, > > > > Nikita Shupletsov, Now, Okada Haruki, Omnia Ibrahim, Otmar Ertl, OuO, > > > > Paolo Patierno, Patrik Nagy, Pawel Szymczyk, PoAn Yang, Ken Huang, > > > > Priyanka K U, Rajani K, Rajini Sivaram, Ram, Ritika Reddy, Robert > > > > Young, Ryan Dielhenn, S.Y. Wang, samarth-ksolves, Sanskar Jhajharia, > > > > Satish Duggana, Sean Quah, Sebastien Viale, Shang-Hao Yang, Shashank, > > > > Shivsundar R, Siyang He, Sophie Blee-Goldman, Stig Døssing, stroller, > > > > Sushant Mahajan, TaiJuWu, TengYao Chi, Tsung-Han Ho (Miles Ho), > > > > Ubuntu, Uladzislau Blok, Vincent PÉRICART, Xiao Yang, xijiu, > > > > Xuan-Zhang Gong, yangxuze, Yeikel Santana, Yu-Syuan Jheng, YuChia Ma, > > > > Yunchi Pang, Yung > > > > > > > > We welcome your help and feedback. For more information on how to > > > > report problems, and to get involved, visit the project website at > > > > https://kafka.apache.org/ > > > > > > > > Thank you! > > > > > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > Christo > > > > Release Manager for Apache Kafka 4.2.0 > > > > > >
