Hi, Solr's next feature release will be 9.0 (as 8x is in bugfix mode). Let's not even think about hacking an 8.12 release based on lucene-solr 8x branch. It will be ugly.
The "Solr 9.0 release blockers" thread <https://lists.apache.org/thread/m7k2gvgxldkns7jqjnw1ghhqx7s3tpl1> was started exactly 2 months ago to try to prepare us. But we're moving slowly. The same happened for Lucene, until the 9.0 release :) So I'll start the train right now... I propose the following rough roadmap: December: Cut branch_9x next week and enter feature freeze on that branch January: Remove blockers, prepare build & release machinery, including Docker February: Cut branch_9_0 and build RC1 - branch_9x is again re-opened for new features I volunteer as RM. Wrt blockers, we need to be tough on ourselves and ask the question "Is it possible to release 9.0 without this?".. At the end of January we should have only a few real blockers left, that are all actively in progress. The delay between branch_9x and branch_9_0 is to avoid having to backport everything twice during the hardening phase. Jan
