Virtual-environments: Ubuntu-latest workflows will use Ubuntu-20.04

[AlenaSviridenko]

Ubuntu-20.04 is ready to be the default version for the “ubuntu-latest” label in GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps. This change will be rolled out over a period of several weeks beginning on November, 30. (December, 22 - January, 4 will be a migration break due to holidays)

If you see any issues with your workflows during this transition period:

• File an issue in this repository
• Switch back to Ubuntu 18.04 by specifying the “ubuntu-18.04” label. We will continue to support Ubuntu 18.04.

Note that image software between Ubuntu-18.04 and Ubuntu-20.04 differs not only by the pre-installed versions of tools, but also by the default versions of some tools. See the list of missing and changes software below.

Software differences

|Tool name|Ubuntu 18.04|Ubuntu 20.04|Notes|
|-|:-:|-|-|
|AWS CLI|1.18.173|2.0.62| These two versions have major set of breaking changes. See migration guide for details|
|.NET Core|2.1.x, 3.0.x, 3.1.x|2.1.x, 3.1.x|.NET Core 3.0 was removed (3.0.100, 3.0.101, 3.0.102, 3.0.103). NET Core 3.0 has reached end of life, meaning it is no longer supported and not recommended to use. If you still need it, consider using setup-dotnet and UseNetCore tasks.|
|Java|7
8(default)
11
12|8
11(default)|If you need to use other versions of Java, consider using setup-java and Java tool installer tasks.|
|Android|17.0 - 30.0|27.0 - 30.0|Android Platforms and build tools < 27.0 were removed from image. Consider installation in runtime using sdkmanager|
|Ruby|2.5.1|2.7.0| Default Ruby was changed from 2.5.x to 2.7.x. Consider using setup-ruby and UseRuby tasks.
|Ruby toolcache|2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7|2.5
2.6
2.7| Ruby 2.4 will become unavailable via install tasks|
|Python3|3.6.9|3.8.2|Default Python will be updated from 3.6 to 3.8. Consider using setup-python or UsePython to switch version|
|PHP|7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
8.0|7.4
8.0|-|
|Azure PowerShell|1.0.0, 1.6.0, 2.3.2, 2.6.0, 2.8.0, 3.1.0, 3.5.0, 3.8.0, 4.3.0, 4.4.0, 4.6.0, 4.7.0|4.8.0|-|
|Boost|1.72.0|-| Boost is not pre-installed on Ubuntu 20.04 image|
|MySQL|5.7|8.0|See migration guide for more details about breaking changes|
|SVN|1.9.7|1.13.0|-|
|Swig|3.0.12|4.0.1|-|
|libcurl apt package|libcurl3|libcurl4|-|
|Clang |6
8
9 (default)|8
9
10(default)|-|

Missing software

Known issues:

• libcurl3 missing in the repo, replaced with libcurl4
• Python2 is absent on Ubuntu 20, but required for some packages to install. Can be installed via apt-get install python-is-python2 or via toolcache
• Python2 pip should be installed separately(curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py --output get-pip.py, python2 get-pip.py)
• Ansible should be installed from the official Ubuntu repo, ppa:ansible/ansible isn't updated yet
• Set condition in git-lfs installation (Ubuntu 18 & 20 can install git-lfs from Ubuntu repo)
• Android SDK should be pointed to Java8 explicitly

Deprecated:

Haskell: https://launchpad.net/~hvr/+archive/ubuntu/ghc-eol

• ghc-8.0.2
• ghc-8.2.2
• ghc-8.4.4
• ghc-8.6.2
• ghc-8.6.3
• ghc-8.6.4
• ghc-8.8.1
• ghc-8.8.2
• cabal-install-2.0
• cabal-install-2.2
• cabal-install-2.4
• cabal-install-3.0

.Net Core

2.2 — EOL December 23, 2019:

• 2.2.402/dotnet-sdk-2.2.402-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.401/dotnet-sdk-2.2.401-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.301/dotnet-sdk-2.2.301-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.300/dotnet-sdk-2.2.300-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.207/dotnet-sdk-2.2.207-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.206/dotnet-sdk-2.2.206-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.205/dotnet-sdk-2.2.205-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.204/dotnet-sdk-2.2.204-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.203/dotnet-sdk-2.2.203-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.202/dotnet-sdk-2.2.202-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.110/dotnet-sdk-2.2.110-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.109/dotnet-sdk-2.2.109-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.108/dotnet-sdk-2.2.108-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.107/dotnet-sdk-2.2.107-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.106/dotnet-sdk-2.2.106-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.105/dotnet-sdk-2.2.105-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.104/dotnet-sdk-2.2.104-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.103/dotnet-sdk-2.2.103-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.102/dotnet-sdk-2.2.102-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.101/dotnet-sdk-2.2.101-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 2.2.100/dotnet-sdk-2.2.100-linux-x64.tar.gz

3.0 — EOL March 3, 2020:

• 3.0.103/dotnet-sdk-3.0.103-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 3.0.102/dotnet-sdk-3.0.102-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 3.0.101/dotnet-sdk-3.0.101-linux-x64.tar.gz
• 3.0.100/dotnet-sdk-3.0.100-linux-x64.tar.gz

Azure PowerShell

• 1.0.0
• 1.6.0
• 2.3.2
• 2.6.0
• 2.8.0
• 3.1.0
• 3.5.0

Each major Go release is supported until there are two newer major releases. For example, Go 1.5 was supported until the Go 1.7 release, and Go 1.6 was supported until the Go 1.8 release. We fix critical problems, including critical security problems, in supported releases as needed by issuing minor revisions

GOLang

• Go 1.11,1.12,1.13

Java:

• Java 7
• Default JDK set to 11

PHP

• 7.1
• 7.2
• 7.3

Android:

• "platforms;android-26"
• "platforms;android-25"
• "platforms;android-24"
• "platforms;android-23"
• "platforms;android-22"
• "platforms;android-21"
• "platforms;android-19"
• "platforms;android-17"
• "build-tools;26.0.3"
• "build-tools;26.0.2"
• "build-tools;26.0.1"
• "build-tools;26.0.0"
• "build-tools;25.0.3"
• "build-tools;25.0.2"
• "build-tools;25.0.1"
• "build-tools;25.0.0"
• "build-tools;24.0.3"
• "build-tools;24.0.2"
• "build-tools;24.0.1"
• "build-tools;24.0.0"
• "build-tools;23.0.3"
• "build-tools;23.0.2"
• "build-tools;23.0.1"
• "build-tools;22.0.1"
• "build-tools;21.1.2"
• "build-tools;20.0.0"
• "build-tools;19.1.0"
• "add-ons;addon-google_apis-google-24"
• "add-ons;addon-google_apis-google-23"
• "add-ons;addon-google_apis-google-22"
• "add-ons;addon-google_apis-google-21"
• "cmake;3.6.4111459"

[jhpratt]

Why is this being output as a warning? If a user relies on behavior from a specific version, they should be pinning it.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @jhpratt ,
we have added a warning for those workflows who are using ubuntu-latest to notify about the upcoming change and give a time to check workflows and adjust them if needed beforehand the transition.
ubuntu-18.04 is the most popular OS in GitHub Actions and most of the customers are using it by tagging ubuntu-latest, so we should use as many communication channels as possible to reduce the unpredictable impact.

[romashko-bo-ma]

What about node.js lts? Maybe it's worth to add support node.js v14.15.1 (Current LTS) to the next ubuntu-latest?

[maxim-lobanov]

@romashko-bo-ma , Every image (both ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04) have Node.JS 8, 10, 12, 14. You should use setup tasks to switch it:

• actions/setup-node (GitHub Actions)
• UseNode (Azure DevOps)

[romashko-bo-ma]

@romashko-bo-ma , Every image (both ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04) have Node.JS 8, 10, 12, 14. You should use setup tasks to switch it:

• actions/setup-node (GitHub Actions)

• UseNode (Azure DevOps)

@maxim-lobanov We're currently using actions/setup-node... but why not make support of Nodejs LTS out of the box?

[maxim-lobanov]

Actually, all ubuntu images have Node.JS 14 as default: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/main/images/linux/Ubuntu2004-README.md#language-and-runtime
But I suggest continue using actions/setup-node. We often see customers' reports where they are unhappy with unexpected default version updates. This task takes less than seconds to run but will guarantee that you are not broken in ftuure.

[desrosj]

we have added a warning for those workflows who are using ubuntu-latest to notify about the upcoming change and give a time to check workflows and adjust them if needed beforehand the transition.

Thanks for adding this notice!

Would it be possible to add a way to acknowledge or dismiss the notice once a project has verified support with 20.04? With the rollout currently set to take several weeks, and not starting until November 30, that means at least a few months of notices being added when using ubuntu-latest, even if compatibility has already been confirmed.

[naubryGV]

Hi, I'm wondering if this recent change could have bring some issue with ca-certificates:
This dockerfile (https://github.com/naubryGV/cpp-clang-check/blob/master/Dockerfile) was working pefectly fine yesterday, but now I'm getting those:

  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/InRelease: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/Release: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  E: The repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security Release' does not have a Release file.

Not sure if it's the way to report those kind of issues.

[romashko-bo-ma]

Actually, all ubuntu images have Node.JS 14 as default: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/blob/main/images/linux/Ubuntu2004-README.md#language-and-runtime
But I suggest continue using actions/setup-node. We often see customers' reports where they are unhappy with unexpected default version updates. This task takes less than seconds to run but will guarantee that you are not broken in ftuure.

@maxim-lobanov thanks for reply! Agree, unexpected version upgrade can bring issues.

[maxim-lobanov]

Hi, I'm wondering if this recent change could have bring some issue with ca-certificates:
This dockerfile (https://github.com/naubryGV/cpp-clang-check/blob/master/Dockerfile) was working pefectly fine yesterday, but now I'm getting those:

  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/InRelease: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/Release: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  E: The repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security Release' does not have a Release file.

Not sure if it's the way to report those kind of issues.

This is not related to this issue. I suggest creating new issue.

[naubryGV]

Hi, I'm wondering if this recent change could have bring some issue with ca-certificates:
This dockerfile (https://github.com/naubryGV/cpp-clang-check/blob/master/Dockerfile) was working pefectly fine yesterday, but now I'm getting those:

  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/InRelease: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  W: http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/Release: No system certificates available. Try installing ca-certificates.
  E: The repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security Release' does not have a Release file.

Not sure if it's the way to report those kind of issues.

This is not related to this issue. I suggest creating new issue.

@maxim-lobanov Will do, thank you.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @desrosj,

Would it be possible to add a way to acknowledge or dismiss the notice once a project has verified support with 20.04?

You can specify a certain version of Ubuntu instead of ubuntu-latest. This warning targets only those workflows who use ubuntu-latest that resolves to 18.04 or to 20.04 and fails during transition period.

But please note, that our main machines capacity is still on Ubuntu-18.04.

[desrosj]

Hi @AlenaSviridenko,

You can specify a certain version of Ubuntu instead of ubuntu-latest.

It's preferable to remain on ubuntu-latest for a few reasons. The notice added here is also a good notifications to test a project against upcoming changes.

Also, changing to use a specific version would mean having to change back to ubuntu-latest later if using latest is preferred.

I was thinking this through, maybe having a secret that could be defined on a repo to suppress these notices (GITHUB_SUPPORTS_UBUNTU_20, or something similar) would be an easy way to "acknowledge" the repo has tested 20.04 and is ready for the transition.

This warning targets only those workflows who use ubuntu-latest that resolves to 18.04 or to 20.04 and fails during transition period.

I am currently seeing the notices appear for successful jobs within workflows. Unless the notice is for all jobs until the transition period begins and will be switched to failures later?

[AlenaSviridenko]

Actually, yes, it is preferable to stay on ubuntu-latest even from our point of view, because we consider the amount of pipelines that are using this tag when we start transition.

Unless the notice is for all jobs until the transition period begins and will be switched to failures later?
That is correct. Until the transition begins we show it for all ubuntu-latest workflows. After transition is started - we will show it for those who still resolves to 18.04 or who resolves to 20.04 but fails.

I will check with our engineers if it is possible to suppress notice if 20.04 is tested and verified. Thanks!

[cartazio]

will https://launchpad.net/~hvr/+archive/ubuntu/ghc be used instead for GHC? or whats the inclusion plan?

thnx :)

[ezequielramos]

publishing code coverage(using cobertura) on ubuntu 20.04 seens to be broke on ubuntu 20.04. Can anyone confirm that?

I'm getting this log:

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @cartazio, not sure what do you mean, we are currently installing 3 latest GHC version, please check this code.
Do you mean installing some additional versions?

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @ezequielramos, we are not pre-installing cobertura for all Ubuntu images, only for Windows images. Could you please confirm that it is the issue with the image and if yes - file a separate issue in our repo, and we will investigate it.

[The-Compiler]

Python2 pip should be installed separately

FWIW, this breaks GitHub's CodeQL action which suggests using ubuntu-latest but needs pip2 without setting it up. I opened a PR over there: https://github.com/github/codeql-action/pull/316

[paulboocock]

The README.md currently states:

The Ubuntu 20.04 virtual environment is currently provided as a preview only.

Is this no longer the case? I assume 20.04 is out of preview if it is becoming ubuntu-latest?
I'm trying to decide if I should pin to 18.04 or 20.04, I'd prefer to use the latest stable version.

[AlenaSviridenko]

👋 @paulboocock ,
correct, as soon as Ubuntu 20.04 will become ubuntu-latest this statement will be removed from docs, but actually it is already stable.

[ezequielramos]

Hi @ezequielramos, we are not pre-installing cobertura for all Ubuntu images, only for Windows images. Could you please confirm that it is the issue with the image and if yes - file a separate issue in our repo, and we will investigate it.

Oh... I guess that's not right. My team is using ubuntu-18.04 for a long time and the cobertura is already pre-installed. In fact, we just changed the image from ubuntu-latest to ubuntu-18.04 and this problem stopped to occur.
We are using the task like this, as it is documented on the pipeline documentation, there is nothing there saying about image OS limitation:

          - task: PublishCodeCoverageResults@1
            condition: succeededOrFailed()
            inputs:
              codeCoverageTool: Cobertura
              summaryFileLocation: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/**/coverage/cobertura-coverage.xml
              reportDirectory: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/**/coverage
              failIfCoverageEmpty: true

Should I open a separate issue for you to investigate it?

[AlenaSviridenko]

@ezequielramos , hmm, that's interesting, ubuntu-latest still resolves to ubuntu-18.04, because transition hasn't started yet, I am not sure how image label change could help here.
Anyway, this seems to be more related to how PublishCodeCoverageResults task works on different OS versions, and we do not own these tasks, so I think you need to file an issue for Azure Pipelines Tasks team in their repo for investigation https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks/issues

[ezequielramos]

@AlenaSviridenko well, that's interesting indeed. I'll open an issue for Azure Pipelines Tasks team.
Thank you for your attention! :relaxed:

[JimmyBanks]

Will this update coincide with Ubuntu 20.04-LTS as a Base image option under the Deployment Inputs within Pipelines Tasks->Build Immutable Machine Image? Or are these completely separate from one another.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @JimmyBanks, yes, ubuntu-20.04 as an immutable image in build options and ubuntu-20.04 that ubuntu-latest will point to - are the same images if that is what you mean.

[JimmyBanks]

Hi @JimmyBanks, yes, ubuntu-20.04 as an immutable image in build options and ubuntu-20.04 that ubuntu-latest will point to - are the same images if that is what you mean.

Thank you, in that case should Ubuntu 20.04 not be a selectable Base image during preview for testing? My team updated the pipeline YAML specification to vmImage: 'ubuntu-20.04'; however, the OS being installed on our VM image remains to be 18.04, which we believe is due to the Gallery Base Image options having 18.04 as the latest selectable option available (I've attached an image as an example).

As you can see, we cannot select 20.04 to test against.

[aannenko]

Should we expect .NET 5 preinstalled on 20.04?

[maxim-lobanov]

Should we expect .NET 5 preinstalled on 20.04?

Yes, .NET 5 support will come to 20.04 at the same time with 18.04

[samirm00]

Node.js CI / build (14.x) on Ubuntu 20.04

[AlenaSviridenko]

@samirm00 , Node.js 14.x is currently a default Node.js version on ubuntu-20.04.

[steved0x]

When ubuntu-latest fully rolls out, can you add a link to this GH issue (the differences between 18.04 and 20.04) to the 20.04 readme?

[AlenaSviridenko]

Hi @steved0x , Ubuntu 20.04 README already contains this link. We are usually keeping announcements in README 1 week after full deployment, but if it is needed we can keep this issue 2 weeks after the deployment.

[saitho]

• Ansible should be installed from the official Ubuntu repo, ppa:ansible/ansible isn't updated yet

Not sure why they haven't been able to publish a proper repo for Ubuntu 20 yet...
I'm installing Ansible 2.10 via pip on my Ubuntu 20 system.
Works fine, but I guess that may be a different story for keeping dependencies up-to-date.

[dsvi]

It seems like Ubuntu 18.04 has Clang 6 by default, not 9

[al-cheb]

@dsvi,
clang-9 is set by default on Ubuntu-18.04:

[dsvi]

nope. apt-get clang gives you this:

[al-cheb]

nope. apt-get clang gives you this:

The default tag for clang in ubuntu official repo is clang-6, but the default clang version on the image is set to clang-9.

$ sudo apt-cache madison clang
     clang | 1:6.0-41~exp5~ubuntu1 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates/universe amd64 Packages
     clang | 1:6.0-41~exp4 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
$ sudo apt-cache madison clang-6.0
 clang-6.0 | 1:6.0-1ubuntu2 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages

[ben-hamelin]

Ran into an error this morning, composer dependency issue with PHP version. It seems as thought ubuntu-latest was actually bringing in PHP 8, where as the software difference table above indicates it will be PHP 7.4. Can anyone confirm this? Forcing ubuntu-18.04 resolved the issue for us.

[maxim-lobanov]

PHP 8.0 is added to all Ubuntu images. Looks like Ubuntu 20.04 is deployed a bit earlier so you have noticed it: https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/pull/2240/files#diff-6be9f9ce03ba57ca01e4ae937d5c2bb04893520fdf391ea87eb46acbc43ecdc5L115
PHP 8.0 is available on image side by side with php 7.x so you can use any of them.

[autumnblazey]

any possibility of adding pnpm as a package manager?

[maxim-lobanov]

@autumnblazey , feel free to raise separate issue as feature request and we will consider it.

Hello everyone!
If you see any new issues with Ubuntu 20.04 or feature requests, please create separate issues in this repository.

[AlenaSviridenko]

Thanks @ben-hamelin for noticing PHP 8.0 is not in the table, updated it to not confuse others in the future.

[madsem]

PHP 8.0 is available on image side by side with php 7.x so you can use any of them.

How would one do that? I can't seem to find how to use specific software versions in a workflow, but I need to use 7.4 for the moment being and all my CI tests fail cause default version is now PHP 8.0.0

jobs:
  laravel:
    name: Laravel Testsuite
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
    ...

[maxim-lobanov]

@madsem ,
If you need to use specific version of PHP, you should specify it as phpx.y, examples: php7.4, php8.0. Alias php is just symlink to latest version so it is expected that it is updated when new version is released. I have posted some additional info in
https://github.com/actions/virtual-environments/pull/2162#issuecomment-747248199

[datashaman]

Adding this step to your workflow using ubuntu-latest will ensure version _7.4_ is used by default:

   steps:
      - name: Set default PHP7.4
        run: sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.4