Deprecated in AL2023
AL2027 Preview
AL2027 is currently available for preview. It is intended for evaluation and testing only and is not recommended for production workloads.
This section describes functionality that was deprecated in AL2023. Most deprecated functionality is removed in AL2027 as of the Preview release. Some functionality will be present in AL2027 Preview but will be removed prior to GA. For information on the current AL2027 Preview release, see the AL2027 User Guide and AL2027 Release Notes.
Note
This section will be updated over time as the Linux ecosystem evolves and future major versions of Amazon Linux are closer to release.
This section will be updated during the AL2027 Preview.
Topics
DNF version 4 and its Python API
AL2027 replaces DNF (version 4) with DNF5. The
dnf and yum commands run DNF5, and compatibility
aliases keep common DNF (version 4) command spellings working. The
DNF (version 4) Python API (python3-dnf) is not available;
port Python scripts to the python3-libdnf5 bindings. For more information, see
Package management tool.
32bit x86 (i686) runtime support
AL2023 retains the ability to run 32bit x86 (i686) binaries on x86_64, but does not ship any userspace packages to support doing so. AL2027 will have support for running 32bit x86 (i686) binaries disabled.
aspell
While AL2023 ships with the aspell package, it is deprecated and is
removed in AL2027. While still present in the initial AL2027 Preview release, it
will be removed before general availability. We recommend that you migrate to modern
replacements such as hunspell or enchant2.
The deprecation of aspell in AL2023 follows the broader community
shift, for example
aspell deprecation in Fedora
Berkeley DB (libdb)
AL2023 ships with version 5.3.28 of the Berkeley DB (libdb) library.
This is the last version of Berkeley DB before the license changed to the GNU Affero GPLv3 (AGPL) license,
from the less restrictive Sleepycat license.
There are few packages in AL2023 that remain reliant on Berkeley DB (libdb). The
library is deprecated in AL2023 and is removed in AL2027.
Note
The dnf package manager in AL2023 retains read-only support for a Berkeley DB (BDB)
format rpm database. This support is removed in AL2027, which uses the SQLite rpm database format.
The deprecation of libdb follows the broader community shift away from it, for example
the libdb deprecation in Fedora
cron
The cronie package was installed by default on the AL2 AMI,
providing support for the traditional crontab way of scheduling periodic tasks.
In AL2023, cronie is not included by default. Therefore, support for crontab is no longer provided by default.
You can optionally install the cronie package to use classic cron jobs.
We recommend that you migrate to systemd timers due to the added functionality provided by systemd.
It is possible that a future version of Amazon Linux will no longer
include support for classic cron jobs and complete the transition to systemd
timers. We recommend that you migrate away from using cron.
IMDSv1
By default, AL2023 AMIs are configured to launch in IMDSv2-only mode, disabling the use of IMDSv1. There is still the option to use AL2023 with IMDSv1 enabled. A future version of Amazon Linux is likely to enforce IMDSv2-only.
For more information on IMDS configuration for AMIs, see Configure the AMI in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
pcre version 1
The legacy pcre package is deprecated and is removed in AL2027.
The pcre2 package is the successor. Although the first versions of AL2023 shipped with a
limited number of packages building against pcre, these packages will be migrated to pcre2
within AL2023. The deprecated pcre library will remain available in AL2023.
Note
The deprecated version of pcre will not receive security updates for the full lifetime
of AL2023. For more information about the pcre support lifecycle and the amount of time that the package will receive security updates,
see the package support statements on the pcre package.
The deprecation of pcre in favor of pcre2 follows the broader
community shift in this direction, for example pcre deprecation in Fedora
System V init (sysvinit)
Although AL2023 retains backwards compatibility with System V service
(init) scripts, the upstream systemd project, as part of its
v254 releasesystemd. For more information, see systemd
AL2023 retains backwards compatibility with System V service (init)
scripts, but the support is deprecated. AL2027, which ships a newer systemd, removes
support for System V service (init) scripts, so migrate to native
systemd unit files.
Control groups version 1 (cgroup v1)
cgroup v1 was deprecated in AL2 and AL2023 ran cgroup v2 by default. The
systemd project removed cgroup v1 support in v258, and AL2027 ships a systemd
newer than v258, so AL2027 supports cgroup v2 only. Move any remaining tooling that mounts or
reads the legacy cgroup v1 hierarchy to the cgroup v2 interfaces. For more information, see
Limiting process resource usage in Amazon Linux using cgroups.
ksh
The ksh shell is deprecated in AL2023 and is removed in AL2027. Port
shell scripts to bash, which is included by default.
opensmtpd
The opensmtpd mail server is deprecated in AL2023 and is removed in
AL2027. Use postfix or sendmail, both available in the repositories.
ftp client
The legacy ftp package from AL2 was removed in AL2023 and remains
unavailable in AL2027. The package was not actively maintained upstream, and the FTP
protocol transmits data, including credentials, in plaintext. For file transfers,
lftp supports FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, and SFTP. For downloads, curl
is installed by default. Where you control both endpoints, we recommend sftp
from the openssh-clients package, because transfers and credentials are encrypted.
EOL Packages are deprecated
Each package available in AL2023 has an associated
support statement
which covers Amazon Linux specific information. These statements cover the core of the OS and its lifetime, as well as packages
such as php and python, where AL2023 ships multiple versions
and each are supported for the duration that the upstream Open Source project does.
In AL2023 you can get package support information using the dnf package manager. For more information, see
Getting package support information.
Where a package is no longer supported before the end of the major version of Amazon Linux, it should be assumed that this package is deprecated and will not be present in the next major version of Amazon Linux.
For packages such as
php and python,
where each major Amazon Linux version has shipped multiple
versions, each with a different support lifecycle, it is likely that they will continue to be present in new major versions of
Amazon Linux, albeit with little or no overlap of major versions of the packages. It is recommended to keep the Amazon Linux
package support timelines in mind when selecting dependencies.
