Release DataFusion `53.0.0` (Feb 2026 / Mar 2026)

[alamb]

Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge?

Previous release will be #18566 (Jan, 2026) so next major release would be approximately Feb 2026 / Mar 2026

Steps:

• Create a branch-53 branch:
• Update version and changelog:
• Test with DataFusion Python
• Test with DataFusion Comet
• Test with DataFusion Ballista
• Test with delta.rs:
• Test vortex:
• Test with iceberg-rust:
• Test with LakeSail:
• Test with parquet viewer
• Test with datafusion-materialized-views
• Voting Thread: https://lists.apache.org/thread/np87km9ttdphxpds3r580bp6jv1x364n
• Publish to crates.io
• Create ticket for next release: Release DataFusion 53.1.0 (minor) (Apr 2026) #21079 / Release DataFusion 54.0.0 (Apr 2026 / May 2026) #21080
• Create blog post: Blog post for the DataFusion 53.0.0 release #20647

Features to mention in the blog (if they make it)

• Avoid recomputing PlanProperties redundently #19796 from @askalt
• [EPIC] Simplify datetime predicates using "preimages" #19946 from @sdf-jkl (along with the related optimizations for date_trunc and date_part)
• Projection pushdown for column narrowing expressions #19387 from @adriangb
• Support JSON arrays reader/parse for datafusion #19924 from @zhuqi-lucas

Bugs that should be fixed

• Extended tests now take over 2 hours to run #20052
• Right joins with empty schema return invalid results #20669

Community Wishlist

• perf: push_down_filter is pathologically slow for some plans #20002
• Streaming Aggregate operator not being used in deduplication of pre-sorted Parquet files #16919
• Regression: DataFrameWriteOptions::with_single_file_output produces a directory #13323
• fix(parquet): converting parquet schema with backward compatible repeated struct/primitive with provided arrow schema arrow-rs#8496
• Row group limit pruning for row groups that entirely match predicates #18868

[alamb]

Given it looks like we are going to do another 52 patch release, I personally won't have bandwidth for this release until March, though if someone else wants to run it that would also be cool

• Release DataFusion 52.2.0 (minor/) Release (Feb 2026) #20287

[xudong963]

I personally won't have bandwidth for this release until March,

FYI, me too, I'll be on the Chinese New Year holiday right now

[adriangb]

Features to mention in the blog (if they make it)

Projection pushdown for column narrowing expressions #19387 from @adriangb

Probably not worth mentioning unless we get apache/arrow-rs#9066 and actual field pruning in place. Otherwise it's not a performance improvement.

[comphead]

@alamb @xudong963 I can try to take care of 53 release, if you havent yet started. But it would take more time comparing to you experienced folks

[alamb]

That would be amazing @comphead -- I likely don't have time to run a release for a few weeks at least, but am happy to help you doing so

[comphead]

That would be amazing @comphead -- I likely don't have time to run a release for a few weeks at least, but am happy to help you doing so

Awesome, planning to create a branch-53 this Sunday afternoon PST