[VOTE] 4.0.1 RC1

Hello Kafka users, developers and client-developers,

This is the second candidate for release of Apache Kafka 4.0.1.

Since this is a patch version it contains the bug fixes outlined in the
release notes below!

Release notes for the 4.0.1 release:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.1-rc1/RELEASE_NOTES.html

*** Please download, test and vote by Tuesday August 26.

Kafka's KEYS file containing PGP keys we use to sign the release:
https://kafka.apache.org/KEYS

* Release artifacts to be voted upon (source and binary):
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.1-rc1/

* Docker release artifacts to be voted upon:
apache/kafka:4.0.1-rc1
apache/kafka-native:4.0.1-rc1

* Maven artifacts to be voted upon:
https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/staging/org/apache/kafka/

* Javadoc:
https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/dev/kafka/4.0.1-rc1/javadoc/

* Tag to be voted upon (off 4.0 branch) is the 4.0.1 tag:
https://github.com/apache/kafka/releases/tag/4.0.1-rc1

* Successful CI builds for the 4.0 branch:
Unit/integration tests:
https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/17041863563

* Successful Docker Image Github Actions Pipeline for 4.0 branch:
Docker Build Test Pipeline (JVM):
https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/17068524479
Docker Build Test Pipeline (Native):
https://github.com/apache/kafka/actions/runs/17068533707

Thanks,
Christo