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linkTitle: Release Guides
title: Apache Polaris Release Guides
type: docs
weight: 500
cascade:
  type: docs
---

This section contains documentation related to Apache Polaris releases.

If you're new to releasing Apache Polaris, we recommend reading the manual release guide first to understand the process. Do not perform any actions described in the manual guide, as the semi-automated guide will handle them for you. Simply read through the manual guide to understand the process.

Once you are familiar with the manual release process, use the semi-automated guide to cut the release.

If you want to verify a release, head to the release verification guide.

## Available Release Guides

### Semi-Automated Release Guide
The [semi-automated release guide](semi-automated-release-guide/) describes how GitHub workflows are used to perform a release with little manual intervention. This guide automates many of the manual steps while maintaining the necessary oversight and validation required for Apache releases. It is the preferred approach for cutting Apache Polaris releases.

### Manual Release Guide (deprecated)
The [manual release guide](manual-release-guide/) walks through each step of creating an Apache Polaris release. This guide provides detailed instructions for every aspect of the release process but requires significant manual intervention. It is deprecated in favor of the semi-automated approach above, but is maintained for reference and fallback scenarios.

### Release Verification Guide
The [release verification guide](release-verification-guide/) provides instructions for verifying an Apache Polaris release, like verifying checksums and signatures, ensuring release artifacts integrity, ...

## Release manager

An Apache Release Manager is a designated project committer responsible for shepherding a software release from community consensus to final distribution.
They proactively drive the technical, legal, and procedural steps, including code freezing, signing artifacts, and coordinating voting.
All releases must comply with the [Release Policy](https://www.apache.org/legal/release-policy.html)

### Key Responsibilities

Release managers do the mechanical work.

* **Release Coordination**:
  Planning timelines, managing the release lifecycle, and acting as the liaison between the development community and the Project Management Committee (PMC).
* **Compliance and Safety**:
  The goal is that all code complies with the ASF's legal, licensing, and security standards.
* **Technical Execution**:
  Creating release candidates, tagging source code, signing artifacts, and publishing to ASF distribution channels.
* **Documentation**:
  Preparing release notes, changelogs, and deployment documentation. 

### PMC and PMC Chair Responsibilities

The PMC in general, and the PMC chair in particular (as an officer of the Foundation), remain responsible for compliance with ASF requirements.

### Role Requirements & Process:

* **Committer Status**:
  Committers on the project can typically act as release managers, ensuring they have necessary access to the release infrastructure.
* **Voluntary & Rotational**:
  The role is voluntary, and we encourage rotating release managers to ensure multiple community members are comfortable with the process.
* **Voting Process**:
  Release managers initiate the voting process and ensure the release is officially approved before release.

## Further information

* [Release Creation Process](https://infra.apache.org/release-publishing.html)
* [Assembling LICENSE and NOTICE files](https://infra.apache.org/licensing-howto.html)
