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1. Create a [DISCUSS] thread on dev@daffodil.apache.org to make a decision as a community if the timing is correct for a release and what open issues should be resolved for a release. Ensure there is at least 72 hours for discussion before moving forward.
     
2. Upon agreement, someone should volunteer to be the "Release Manager" to take the responsibility to prepare the release candidate.
      
3. Check containers/release-candidate/Dockerfile  for dnf/npm packages with out of date versions (especially sbt and yarn installs). Dependabot does not automatically update these. If out of date, create and merge a pull request to update the versions.
    

4. Prior to creating the release candidate, the version of the project still contains the -SNAPSHOT keyword. Create and merge a pull request to remove this -SNAPSHOT keyword in preparation for a non-snapshot release.
   
   The new version should not contain an -rcX  suffix--the suffix is automatically added to release candidate artifact file names where necessary by the release candidate container.

Creating a Release Candidate

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