[Feature]: More frequent updates to iceberg version and other dependencies

[fuzing]

Description

It looks like the latest builds of nessie are using iceberg 1.5.0 which is now 9 months old (current version 1.7.1). Is it possible that the project could update dependencies on a more frequent basis.
Thanks for a great project!

Expected Use Cases

Any/All

Requested Changes in public API

N/A

[dimas-b]

@fuzing : why is it a concern?

AFAIK, Nessie's behaviour should not be affected by the version of its Iceberg dependencies.

[fuzing]

Hi @dimas-b -

By way of one example, Nessie supports the iceberg REST catalog implementation. By extension my presumption is that Nessie (through its Iceberg jar dependency) handles atomic metadata/snapshot file updates along with a whole host of other functionality (e.g. the GC, Admin and CLI tools for various ops that may depend on some of the iceberg functionality). From V1.5.0 through V1.7.1 there have been numerous bug fixes, performance improvements and several enhancements that some folks might need (enumerated here) - e.g. new table data types etc.

If I'm mistaken and the iceberg dependency is only used for extrinsic functions (e.g. unit testing) then I apologize.

While this ticket relates to a specific upgrade of a specific dependency (i.e. 1.5.0 to 1.7.1 of iceberg version), it would be helpful to also understand what general policies the Nessie maintainers have in place to support dependency upgrades. This matters a LOT for anyone concerned about timely patches for such things as CVEs (etc) and new features (e.g. the upcoming table V3 releases [unknown timeframe and deps]). Clearly, if the Nessie maintainers aren't committed to some form of dependency update schedule then this may factor into the decision to use/not-use Nessie for some organizations. It would just be great to know if there's a clear set of policies relating to this, so that users can make informed decisions as to the suitability of the project.

Again - love the project, but would like a little more information about the frequency of dependency upgrades.

[snazy]

@fuzing dependencies are always kept up to date automatically - the recent Nessie releases have/had Apache Iceberg 1.7.1/1.7.0/1.6.x/...

[dimas-b]

Iceberg artifacts are mostly not used in the REST API services runtime. While Nessie supports the REST API spec of Iceberg 1.7.0 (if I'm not mistaken), this support cannot be assumed or derived from the Iceberg artifact versions.

@fuzing : Do you have any suggestions for what would be usable from your POV for declaring API compatibility with Iceberg REST?