Semi-Automated Release Guide

Audience: Release Managers

Overview

The steps performed in the Manual Release Guide have been automated to a large extent. This semi-automated release guide outlines the workflows that can be used to perform a release with little manual intervention.

Dry-run mode

Each of the Github Workflows that have been developed comes with a dry-run mode. It is enabled ticking the Dry run mode checkbox before starting the workflow. When enabled, the workflow will not perform any destructive action (e.g. tag creation, branch deletion, etc.) but instead print out the commands that would have been executed.

Dry-run mode is enabled by default. So ensure that you uncheck the Dry run mode checkbox before starting the workflow.

Prerequisites

Announce the intent to cut a release

Polaris follows a schedule-driven release model. The first thing to do is to send an e-mail to the dev@polaris.apache.org mailing list to announce the intent to cut a release, approximately a week before the scheduled release date. The e-mail should include the following information:

The version number of the release (e.g. 1.4.0)
The tentative date of the release (e.g. 2026-01-19)

Note that the tentative date is only a suggestion. The actual date of the release will be determined by taking community feedback into account. For instance, if specific pull requests are about to be merged, the release may be delayed by a couple of days to include them.

[DISCUSS] Apache Polaris x.y.z

Hello everyone,

The purpose of this e-mail is to collect feedback on the upcoming Apache
Polaris x.y.z release. The tentative release date is YYYY-MM-DD. Please let
me know if you have any concerns or comments, or if there are some specific
pull requests that you would like to see included in the release.

Thanks,

Ensure that the changelog is up to date

As part of Polaris development process, for each major change in the codebase, a new entry should be added to the CHANGELOG.md file. This is usually verified during pull request reviews. But some changes may have been missed. So before cutting a release, it is important to ensure that the changelog is up to date.

Release branch creation workflow

The first Github workflow to run is Release - 1 - Create Release Branch. This workflow will create a release branch from the main branch. The release branch is named after the release number and does not include the patch version. For instance, the release branch for version 1.3.0 is named release/1.3.x. It should only be executed only once per major.minor version.

Screenshot of the first release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

Once the workflow has run, the run details page contains a recap of the main information, including whether dry-run mode was enabled, the release branch name and the Git SHA of the commit that was used to create the release branch.

Screenshot of a detailed run of the first release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

RC0 only - Changelog and version update workflow

The second Github workflow to run is Release - 2 - Update version and Changelog for Release Candidate. This workflow will:

Verify that all Github checks are green for the release branch.
Increase the patch version number by 1 if the workflow has already been run for that major.minor version.
Update the project version files with the final version number
Commit the changes to the release branch
Create the major.minor.patch-rc0 tag

This workflow can only be run from a release/x.y.z branch. Selecting any other branch in the Github Actions UI will result in a failure.

Note that the tag that is created is for RC0. This workflow should only be executed only once per major.minor.patch version.

Screenshot of the second release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

Like for the other workflow runs, the run details page contains a recap of the main information, with all the steps that were executed.

Screenshot of a detailed run of the second release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

RC≥1 only - Update release branch and create tag

If the first release candidate is rejected, additional code changes may be needed. These steps have not been automated yet.

Each code change that should be added to the release branch must be cherry-picked from the main branch and proposed in a dedicated pull request. The pull request must be reviewed and approved before being merged. This step is mandatory so that Github runs the CI checks. The subsequent workflows will verify that those checks passed.

Once the pull requests have been merged, create a new apache-polaris-[major].[minor].[patch]-incubating-rc[N] tag. The commands below assume that the apache/polaris Git repository corresponds to the apache remote.

# Ensure you're on the correct release branch and have the latest changes
git fetch apache
git checkout release/[major].[minor].x
git pull apache release/[major].[minor].x

# Create and push the release candidate tag
git tag -a apache-polaris-[major].[minor].[patch]-incubating-rc[N] -m "Apache Polaris [major].[minor].[patch] (incubating) release candidate [N]"
git push apache apache-polaris-[major].[minor].[patch]-incubating-rc[N]

Build and publish release artifacts

The third Github workflow to run is Release - 3 - Build and publish release artifacts. This workflow will:

Build the source and binary artifacts
Stage artifacts to the Apache dist dev repository
Publish the source and binary artifacts to the Apache Nexus repository
Close the Apache Nexus repository
Build Docker images for the server and the admin tool
Build the Helm chart
Create signature and checksum for all package files
Copy package files to Apache dist dev repository

This workflow can only be run from a release/x.y.z branch. Selecting any other branch in the Github Actions UI will result in a failure.

Screenshot of the third release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

Start the vote thread

The last step for a release candidate is to create a VOTE thread on the dev mailing list.

Recommended title subject:

[VOTE] Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci)

Close the vote thread

If the vote failed

When a release candidate is rejected, reply with the vote result:

[RESULT][VOTE] Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci)

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who participated in the vote for Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci).

The vote failed due to [reason].

A new release candidate will be proposed soon once the issues are addressed.

Thanks,

If the code passed

When a release candidate passes, send a new e-mail with the vote result:

[RESULT][VOTE] Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci)

Thanks everyone who participated in the vote for Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci).

The vote result is:

+1: a (binding), b (non-binding)
+0: c (binding), d (non-binding)
-1: e (binding), f (non-binding)

A new vote is starting in the Apache Incubator general mailing list.

Start a new vote thread on the Incubator general mailing list

As Polaris is an Apache Incubator project, you now have to start a new vote on the Apache Incubator general mailing list.

You have to send this email to general@incubator.apache.org:

[VOTE] Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci)

Hello everyone,

The Apache Polaris community has voted and approved the release of Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci).
We now kindly request the IPMC members review and vote for this release.

Polaris community vote thread:
* https://lists.apache.org/thread/<VOTE THREAD>

Vote result thread:
* https://lists.apache.org/thread/<VOTE RESULT>

* This corresponds to the tag: apache-polaris-x.y.z-rci
* https://github.com/apache/polaris/commits/apache-polaris-x.y.z-rci
* https://github.com/apache/polaris/tree/<SHA1>

The release tarball, signature, and checksums are here:
* https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/polaris/x.y.z

Helm charts are available on:
* https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/incubator/polaris/helm-chart
NB: you have to build the Docker images locally in order to test Helm charts.

You can find the KEYS file here:
* https://downloads.apache.org/incubator/polaris/KEYS

Convenience binary artifacts are staged on Nexus. The Maven
repositories URLs are:
* https://repository.apache.org/content/repositories/orgapachepolaris-<ID>/

Please download, verify, and test according to the release verification guide, which can be found at
https://polaris.apache.org/community/release-verify/.

Please vote in the next 72 hours.

[ ] +1 approve
[ ] +0 no opinion
[ ] -1 disapprove with the reason

To learn more about apache Polaris, please see https://polaris.apache.org/

Checklist for reference:

[ ] Download links are valid.
[ ] Checksums and signatures.
[ ] LICENSE/NOTICE files exist
[ ] No unexpected binary files
[ ] All source files have ASF headers
[ ] Can compile from source

The next steps depend on the vote result.

Close the vote thread on the Incubator general mailing list

If the vote failed

When a release candidate is rejected, reply in the same thread with the vote result.

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all who participated in the vote for Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci).

The vote failed due to [reason].

Thanks,

If the code passed

When a release candidate passes, send a new e-mail with the vote result:

[RESULT][VOTE] Release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci)

Hello everyone,

The vote to release Apache Polaris x.y.z (rci) has passed with [N] +1 binding and [M] +1 non-binding votes.

Binding +1 votes:
* [NAME]
* [NAME]
* [NAME]
* ...

Non-binding +1 votes:
* [NAME]
* ...

Vote thread: https://lists.apache.org/thread/<VOTE THREAD>

We will proceed with publishing the approved artifacts and sending out the announcement soon.

Publish the release

The final workflow to run is Release - 4 - Publish Release After Vote Success. This workflow will:

Copy artifacts from the dist dev to the dist release SVN repository
Update the Helm index in dist release repository accordingly
Create a final release tag
Rebuild and publish Docker images to Docker Hub
Create a Github release with the release artifacts
Release the candidate repository on Apache Nexus

This workflow can only be run from the release/x.y.z branch for which a vote has passed. It also requires the Nexus staging repository id (orgapachepolaris-<ID>) that was created by the previous workflow.

Screenshot of the fourth release workflow for 1.3.0-incubating

Publish docs

These steps have not been automated yet.

Open a PR against branch versioned-docs to publish the documentation
Open a PR against the main branch to update website
- Add download links and release notes in Download page
- Add the release in the website menu