0.11.0.0 Feature Freeze Update

[Ismael Juma <is...@juma.me.uk>]

Hi all,

As you hopefully know, are now past the feature freeze for 0.11.0.0. As
such, I have created the 0.11.0 branch, its Jenkins job and bumped the
Kafka version in trunk. From now on, if a change needs to be in 0.11.0.0,
it needs to be merged to trunk and the 0.11.0 branch.

As documented in the release plan, major features should now be merged and
we will be working on stabilization (tests, fixes, documentation, etc.).
Minor features (including minor changes to major features) with a PR can be
merged until next Wednesday (24th May). After that, it's all about fixes,
tests and documentation.

As a reminder, here are the upcoming important dates (also documented in
the release plan https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Release+
Plan+0.11.0.0):

   - Code Freeze: May 31, 2017 (first RC created now)
   - Release: June 14, 2017

Not long to go now. :)

KIPs: we have 32 adopted with almost all of them already committed. We have
bumped 7 KIPs to the next release. Now that we have created the 0.11.0
branch, we can start merging PRs for the next release.

Open JIRAs: As usual, we have a lot!

*https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20KAFKA%20AND%20status%20in%20(Open%2C%20%22In%20Progress%22%2C%20Reopened%2C%20%22Patch%20Available%22)%20AND%20fixVersion%20%3D%200.11.0.0%20ORDER%20BY%20priority%20DESC
<https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20KAFKA%20AND%20status%20in%20(Open%2C%20%22In%20Progress%22%2C%20Reopened%2C%20%22Patch%20Available%22)%20AND%20fixVersion%20%3D%200.11.0.0%20ORDER%20BY%20priority%20DESC>*

157 at the moment. Now that we are past the feature freeze, I will start
moving JIRAs to the next release.

* Closed JIRAs: So far ~265 closed tickets for 0.11.0.0:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%
20KAFKA%20AND%20status%20in%20(Resolved%2C%20Closed)%20AND
%20fixVersion%20%3D%200.11.0.0%20ORDER%20BY%20priority%20DESC

* Release features:
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Release+Plan+0.11.0.0 has
a "Release Features" section that will be included with the release
notes/email for the release. I added some items to get it going. Please add
to
this list anything you think is worth noting.

If you missed any of the updates on the new time-based releases we'll be
following, see
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/Time+Based+Release+Plan
for an explanation.

I'll plan to give another update a week from now.

Thanks,
Ismael