Kubernetes 1.29 State of the Release - Mid-Cycle Update

[Angelos Kolaitis]

Hi Kubernetes community,

We would like to share a mid-cycle update regarding the state of the Kubernetes 1.29 release.

TL;DR:

• We are tracking 46 (42 + 4 accepted exceptions) enhancements post-Code Freeze.

• Please remember to create your documentation PRs and opt-into feature blogs by the deadlines below.

• We are seeking your suggestions for Major Themes.

We are 9 weeks into the Kubernetes 1.29 release, which started on September 4th. The Enhancements Freeze took place on October 6th, the Code Freeze took place on November 1st, and we are about a month away from the planned release of Kubernetes 1.29 on December 5th.

Past Dates (Release Timeline):

• Open Placeholder PRs for Docs - Thursday, October 19th

• Feature Blog Freeze - Wednesday, October 25th

• Code Freeze - Wednesday, November 1st

Upcoming Milestones (Release Timeline):

• Docs PRs Ready for Review - Tuesday, November 14th

• Major Themes Deadline - Tuesday, November 14th

• Test Freeze - Wednesday, November 15th

Enhancements

• We have 46 tracked enhancements after Code Freeze. At the moment of this writing, 4 exceptions have been filed and all of them have been approved by the release team. We track enhancements using the 1.29 Enhancements Tracking board on GitHub.

Feature Blogs

• Writing a feature blog is a great way to highlight and share information about your enhancement with the community. Feature blogs are especially encouraged for high visibility changes as well as deprecations and removals. To opt-in, create a placeholder PR and request your SIG Lead to add the placeholder PR to the corresponding row on Comms team’s GitHub board view. The feature blogs official deadline has passed, but we are still open for opt-in. If you are interested in writing a blog for your enhancement, please create placeholder PR and contact your lead ASAP.

Documentation

• If your KEP changes require updates to the website, please ensure that the documentation PR be Ready to Review by Tuesday, November 14th. For more information, please refer to PR ready for review.

Major Themes

• Each release, we choose a handful of high impact features to be major themes. You can nominate an enhancement to be a major theme by adding a comment to the discussion on GitHub with links and a description of the feature. We kindly request that all SIG Leads and Technical Chairs participate in this collection. The last day for adding major themes for consideration is Tuesday, November 14th.

Wrapping Up

Lastly, we would like to say thanks to the SIG leads, KEP authors, PRR reviewers, and other contributors for their continuous commitment to the Kubernetes release process!

For any questions or feedback, please reach out to us on #sig-release.

Sincerely,

Angelos Kolaitis, on behalf of the 1.29 Release Team.