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Typically, we do at least one RC before a full release.
Who can vote?
Committers & Non-committers may cast a vote for a release's quality. In fact, this is extremely encouraged as it provides much-needed feedback to the community about the release's quality. However, only votes cast by committers PMC members count towards the designation. Note that no one may veto a release. The PMC or the release manager may revoke all votes on a release if a new major problem is discovered prior to publication of a release and request a revote. However, once there are greater than 3 positive votes, the release may be made at any time. In addition, the RM may decide against making a release even if the required votes have been made.
Full (general availability) releases require 3 +1's from PMC members . This is unfortunate, but it's a requirement of the ASF's bylawsand the release can be made as soon as a minimum quorum of three +1's from PMC members is met. See Apache Voting Procedure.
Pre-releases and RC's can be created and uploaded with just "lazy consensus" – ie. it's all go unless someone speaks up to object. However, you need to make it clear they are not equivalent to a "full"/"official" release – they cannot be uploaded to the "real" website download directories (ie www.apache.org/dist), or announced as a full release via a mail to the announce list. Make it clear that this is an unofficial "test build" by placing it in your public_html dir – e.g. http://people.apache.org/~jm/devel/ – for download.
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