How to release

This page is for Apache Iceberg PMC members and committers who are cutting a new Apache Iceberg Go release. The canonical scripts live in dev/release/ and dev/release/README.md is the source of truth - this page mirrors it and adds context.

Requirements

You must be an Apache Iceberg committer or PMC member.
You must prepare a PGP key for signing. See https://infra.apache.org/release-signing.html#generate.
Your PGP key must be registered in the Apache Iceberg KEYS file at https://downloads.apache.org/iceberg/KEYS. To add a key:
```
svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/iceberg
cd iceberg
$EDITOR KEYS
svn ci KEYS
```
You must run the release scripts from a working copy whose origin remote is git@github.com:apache/iceberg-go.git (not your fork). release_rc.sh enforces this.

Overview

Test the revision to be released.
Prepare an RC and start a vote.
On a passing vote, publish.

Prepare an RC and vote

Run dev/release/release_rc.sh against the canonical clone:

git clone git@github.com:apache/iceberg-go.git
cd iceberg-go
GH_TOKEN=${YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN} dev/release/release_rc.sh ${VERSION} ${RC}

Example for 0.6.0 RC1:

GH_TOKEN=${YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN} dev/release/release_rc.sh 0.6.0 1

The arguments are the version and the RC number. If RC1 has a problem, increment the RC number to RC2, RC3, and so on.

release_rc.sh will:

Tag vX.Y.Z-rc<N> and push the tag.
Create a signed source tarball.
Upload the artifacts to https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/iceberg/.
Print a draft [VOTE] email you can use on dev@iceberg.apache.org.

Send the [VOTE] email. The vote runs for at least 72 hours and requires three +1 votes from PMC members with no -1 votes to pass.

Publish

When the vote passes, run:

GH_TOKEN=${YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN} dev/release/release.sh ${VERSION} ${RC}

release.sh moves the artifacts from https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/iceberg/ to https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/iceberg/ (which feeds https://downloads.apache.org/iceberg/) and creates a GitHub Release with auto-generated notes.

Post-release tasks

After publishing, complete these steps:

Add the release to ASF's report database at the Apache Committee Report Helper.
Verify the GitHub Release at https://github.com/apache/iceberg-go/releases is correctly tagged, has generated release notes against the prior tag, and is marked as latest. release.sh runs gh release create ... --generate-notes --verify-tag so the release should already exist; double-check the notes and the "Latest" badge.
Send the [ANNOUNCE] email to dev@iceberg.apache.org and announce@apache.org.
File a release blog post in apache/iceberg under site/docs/blog/posts/. See the prior 0.5.0 post (2026-03-05-iceberg-go-0.5.0-release.md) for the frontmatter and structure.

Patch releases

dev/release/README.md does not document a patch-branch convention (e.g. iceberg-go-0.X.x). Confirm with the PMC on dev@iceberg.apache.org before cutting a patch release.

Iceberg Golang