Release stable version of opentelemetry-instrumentation-api

[trask]

This is a tracking issue for releasing stable version of the opentelemetry-instrumentation-api artifact.

Will post updates from time to time on this issue for anyone who wants to watch/follow it.

You may also be interested in following #2713 which is the current major work in progress towards this goal.

In the meantime, if you require a stable artifact, we recommend using opentelemetry-api directly, or shading opentelemetry-instrumentation-api.

[trask]

I realized, another gate on a stable release of the opentelemetry-instrumentation-api is a stable release of the semantic conventions

[trask]

Something else to consider is whether to wait for otel-wide spec of "instrumentation api" (discussion at open-telemetry/oteps#165)

[mateuszrzeszutek]

Just a thought that occurred to me: we could mark the packages that depend on semantic conventions (...instrumenter.http, ...instrumenter.messaging et cetera) as @UnstableApi while making the general Instrumenter API stable. It limits the usability of the instrumenter-api (since you can still have breaking changes in your HTTP client instrumentation) but at least all the customization interfaces can be stable (so users of your HTTP client instrumentation can add AttributesExtractors without worrying that its interface will change).

[iNikem]

Or just have all attributes extractor in a separate unstable module

[iNikem]

But anyway I totally support the idea of somehow making possible to declare stable a subset of a module

[mateuszrzeszutek]

Or just have all attributes extractor in a separate unstable module

We've already introduced @UnstableApi for metrics API, the semantic conventions situations is kind of similar to that.
But yeah, a separate module would be fine too.

[ThomasVitale]

Is it correct to follow the backlog in https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/projects/10#card-70538476 to know what tasks are left to do before opentelemetry-instrumentation-api can go GA?

[iNikem]

@ThomasVitale yes

[trask]

for those watching this issue, we are planning for the next release of the opentelemetry-instrumentation-api (1.17.0) to be a Release Candidate