airflow-ctl release doc: fill remaining follow-up gaps

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.

[potiuk]

Follow-up to #65499 (the GPG/PR-first/sanity-checks doc PR). Adds the rest of the airflow-ctl release-doc gaps observed during the 0.1.4rc1 → 0.1.4rc2 release:

New "Releasing from main vs a maintenance branch" section

Walks the RM through the per-branch comparison (git log airflow-ctl/<prev>..<branch> -- airflow-ctl/) and spells out the three mechanical consequences of a maintenance-branch release (release-prep PR target, tag target commit, forward-port of any doc fixes to main). This came up live during the 0.1.4 release, where we started on v3-2-test then confirmed every airflow-ctl PR was already on main and switched.

Fleshed-out "Prepare issue in GitHub to keep status of testing" section

Previously just ran generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl and stopped. Now:

1. Writes the generator output to /tmp/issue_airflowctl_${VERSION_RC}.md so the RM can eyeball-edit before posting.
2. Documents the canonical gh issue create invocation with the testing status label and the Status of testing of Apache Airflow CTL ${VERSION_RC} title convention.
3. Reminds the RM to keep the returned URL for the voting email and the Close the testing status issue step later.

Also notes that generate-issue-content-airflow-ctl now falls back to gh auth token automatically (see #65501) — the release doc no longer tells RMs to prefix the command with GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token).

Fix prune_old_dirs.py invocation (it was a no-op as written)

The previous instructions ran prune_old_dirs.py with cwd = asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/${VERSION} — a directory that contains only artifact files, no version subdirectories, so the script always logged "No version-like directories found in …" and exited cleanly without pruning anything. Added an explicit cd .. before the invocation so the script operates on asf-dist/release/airflow/airflow-ctl/ and actually prunes older version folders. Clarifying comment documents the scope so the RM knows the script cannot touch sibling directories (airflow/, helm-chart/, or any provider folder).

Rename second "Add tags in git" to "Add the final release tag in git"

The doc had two sections with the same heading (RC tag vs final tag). Renaming the second disambiguates the TOC and makes it obvious which section is relevant when you are jumping around the doc.

---

Was generative AI tooling used to co-author this PR?

• Yes — Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context)

Generated-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) following the guidelines

[github-actions]

Backport failed to create: v3-2-test. View the failure log Run details

Note: As of Merging PRs targeted for Airflow 3.X
the committer who merges the PR is responsible for backporting the PRs that are bug fixes (generally speaking) to the maintenance branches.

In matter of doubt please ask in #release-management Slack channel.

Status	Branch	Result
❌	v3-2-test

You can attempt to backport this manually by running:

cherry_picker 357aca8 v3-2-test

This should apply the commit to the v3-2-test branch and leave the commit in conflict state marking
the files that need manual conflict resolution.

After you have resolved the conflicts, you can continue the backport process by running:

cherry_picker --continue

If you don't have cherry-picker installed, see the installation guide.