Release tracker - 3.1.0

[ScottTodd]

Overview

Our previous stable release was cut on 2024-11-18: https://github.com/iree-org/iree/releases/tag/iree-3.0.0. We aim for roughly one stable release every 6 weeks. This issue tracks the release process for the next release.

Release process docs:

• https://iree.dev/developers/general/release-management/
• https://github.com/iree-org/iree/blob/main/RELEASING.md

Release checklist:

• Watch for major/breaking changes and decide to either batch them with this release or defer them until the next release
• Choose a release candidate from nightly releases to promote. The candidate should contain no major regressions and should include all packages, even those marked experimental in .github/workflows/build_package.yml like macOS and Windows packages.
• Compile release notes
• Promote to stable (on GitHub) and push packages to PyPI
• Roll forward downstream packages like iree-turbine and push similar package updates to PyPI
• Update release process docs for next time

Release notes

Commit range

• Previous release to main: iree-3.0.0...main

(Contributors can edit this section as they land patches)

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Announcements

Notable changes

Framework support

• The iree-import-onnx tool now includes options that improve handling of large models: ab3c9bb. See the ONNX framework documentation at https://iree.dev/guides/ml-frameworks/onnx/.
• The PJRT plugin code at integrations/pjrt/ has been refreshed and is now tested continuously.

Compiler

• Compiler support for "tuning" continues to improve. See the new documentation at https://iree.dev/reference/tuning/ and the tracking issue: Include default tuning specs with the compiler #19214.
• Support for ukernels in GPU targets has evolved:
  • AMDGPU ukernels were ported from HIP to self-contained C in d704051.
  • AMDGPU ukernels for select targets are now bundled with the compiler and are selected, loaded, and linked in during compilation thanks to 8272490, cbb11f2, and dc29ee7. Externally-defined ukernels can also be provided: 82a89e3.

Runtime

• There were breaking changes to some iree_hal_* APIs in eae7bfb:
  • iree_hal_buffer_subspan now requires an iree_allocator_t host_allocator that was previously implicit.
  • iree_hal_subspan_buffer_initialize was removed as it was not safe.
  • iree_hal_deferred_buffer_t was removed as placement checks without an allocated buffer reference are not possible.
  • iree_hal_heap_buffer_wrap and all other buffer creation now requires a placement.
  • iree_hal_buffer_initialize used by HAL implementations now requires a placement.
• The HIP runtime can now create a single logical device backed by multiple physical devices: 0e71e72.
• Improved support for loading large programs in the HIP HAL: 47ccd93, 7ff83ea.

Development tools

• The iree.build package now has reference documentation at https://iree-python-api.readthedocs.io/en/latest/compiler/build.html, has more robust HTTP fetching (9789438), and supports out of process concurrency (ef4ecf3).
• Development versions of Python packages are now easier to install using build_tools/pkgci/setup_venv.py and a new package bisect script is available at build_tools/pkgci/bisect.

Full changelog

iree-3.0.0...main

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[ScottTodd]

We aim for roughly one stable release every 6 weeks. This issue tracks the release process for the next release.

Six weeks from the 3.0.0 release would be December 30, so we're instead targeting release 3.1.0 for one week later - on January 6. Given the proximity to the holidays, I'm going to start compiling release notes and watching for both high impact and risky PRs/commits this week.

[ScottTodd]

Back from the holidays now. We're finding that some upstream and downstream builds are unstable, which might delay the release a few days. Tentatively looking at moving the target from Jan 6 (Monday) to Jan 8 (Wednesday), with a release candidate selected early in the week.