Ubuntu-latest workflows will use Ubuntu-24.04 image

[ijunaidm]

Rollout will begin on December 5th and will complete on January 17th, 2025.

Breaking changes
Ubuntu 24.04 is ready to be the default version for the "ubuntu-latest" label in GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps.

Target date
This change will be rolled out over a period of several weeks beginning December 5th and will complete on January 17th, 2025.

The motivation for the changes
GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps have supported Ubuntu 24.04 in preview mode since May 2024, and starting from July 2024 Ubuntu 24.04 is generally available for all customers. We have monitored customer feedback to improve the Ubuntu 24.04 image stability and now we are ready to set it as the latest. There are a set of packages listed below that we have removed from the Ubuntu 24 image. Please review the list carefully to see if you will be impacted by these changes. We have made cuts to the list of packages so that we can maintain our SLA for free disk space. The images have grown so large we are in danger of violating our SLA if we keep the package list as-is.

The factors we took into consideration when removing packages are as follows:

• How long does it take to install the tool at runtime?
• How much space does it take up on the image?
• How many users are there of the tool?

We understand that our reasoning may not make sense to some of you out there, but please bear in mind that we tried to keep disruptions as minimal as possible, and tried to keep the best interests of the community at large in mind. There is a very large and diverse community using our images, and as much as we would like to, we cannot pre-install every tool on these images.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions

Mitigation ways
Steps or options for impact mitigation
If you see any issues with your workflows during transition period:

• Switch back to Ubuntu 22 by changing workflow YAML to use runs-on: ubuntu-22.04 We support two latest LTS Ubuntu versions, so Ubuntu 22 will still be maintained for the next 2 years.
• File an issue in this repository

Software Differences
The Ubuntu 22.04 image has a different set of software than Ubuntu 24.04. The most significant changes are listed in the table below:

Tool name	Ubuntu 22.04	Ubuntu 24.04	Notes
Clang	13.* 14.* (default) 15.*	16.* 17.* 18.* (default)	The most recent versions are installed
GCC / GNU C++ / GNU Fortran	9.* 10.* 11.* 12.* 13.*	12.* 13.* 14.*	The most recent versions are installed
PHP	8.1.*	8.3.*	The most recent version are installed
Java	8.* 11.* (default) 17.* 21.*	8.* 11.* 17.* (default) 21.*	Default Java switched to 17.* for Ubuntu 24.04 image.
Python	3.7.* (cached) 3.8.* (cached) 3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (default) 3.11.* (cached) 3.12.* (cached)	3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (cached) 3.11.* (cached) 3.12.* (default)	Pre-cached versions currently unavailable. Default version switched to the latest one. On GitHub Actions, actions/setup-python can install any version on-flight so this change doesn't impact users
Go	1.20.* (cached) 1.21.* (default) 1.22.* (cached)	1.21.* (cached) 1.22.* (cached) 1.23.* (default)	If your use-case requires using any of these versions, consider using tasks to install Go on-flight: actions/setup-go (GitHub Actions) Go Tool Installer (Azure DevOps)
PyPy	3.7.* (cached) 3.8.* (cached) 3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (cached)	3.9.* (cached) 3.10.* (cached)	Deprecated all the versions besides the most recent ones
Ruby	3.0.* (default) 3.1.* (cached)	3.2.* (default)	We need to update 3.3.5
Node.js	16.* (cached) 18.* (default) 20.* (cached)	16.* (cached) 18.* (cached) 20.* (default)	If your use-case requires using any of these versions, consider using tasks to install Node.js on-flight: actions/setup-node (GitHub Actions) Node.js Tool Installer (Azure DevOps) Node 16 will be replaced with Node 22
Heroku	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Leiningen	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Mono / MSBuild / NuGet	latest available	-	Software is not available for Ubuntu 24 at the moment.
Terraform	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
R	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
SVN	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Alibaba Cloud CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Netlify CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
OpenShift CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
ORAS CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Vercel CLI	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Bindgen / Cbindgen	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Cargo audit/clippy/outdated	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
.NET Core SDK	6.* 7.* 8.*	8.*	Please consider using tasks to install any version on-flight: actions/setup-dotnet (GitHub Actions) Use .NET Core (Azure DevOps)
PostgreSQL	14.*	16.*	More recent version are installed
MS SQL Server Client Tools	sqlcmd / SqlPackage	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
MarkdownPS Module	latest available	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.
Android Command Line Tools	9.0	12.0	The most recent version are installed
Android SDK Build-tools	34.0.0 33.0.0 33.0.1 33.0.2 33.0.3 32.0.0 31.0.0	34.0.0	The most recent version are installed
Android NDK	25.* (default) 26.*	27.* (default) 26.*	The most recent version are installed
Cached Docker images	alpine:3.16 alpine:3.17 alpine:3.18 debian:10 debian:11 moby/buildkit:latest node:16 node:16-alpine node:18 node:18-alpine node:20 node:20-alpine ubuntu:20.04 ubuntu:22.04	-	Removed from the Ubuntu 24.04 image due to maintenance reasons.

[ThibaultLesuisse]

Nuget and sqlpackage not being available is a major showstopper for us.

The more I look at this list the more I realize that 24.04 is a step back for a lot of people. People are going to complain when this becomes the ubuntu-latest. Be aware of this and maybe make sure this communication is shown on github/azure devops

But thanks for the heads up!

[MikeMcC399]

@ijunaidm

ubuntu-24.04 is still labeled beta in the overview on https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/README.md#available-images

Will you now be removing the beta tag?

[ijunaidm]

Yes @MikeMcC399 . Its updated and removed.

[zivkan]

@ThibaultLesuisse are you aware that NuGet refers specifically to NuGet.exe (which requires mono on Mac & Linux), as does Azure Pipeline's NuGetCommand, and GitHub Actions' nuget/setup-nuget action?

If you're building your projects with dotnet build, you're much better off restoring with dotnet restore, and not using NuGet.exe or mono at all.

[ThibaultLesuisse]

But we need NuGet.exe to sync our custom Artifacts store. And yes I know that commonly you need to run mono nuget.exe to run it on Mac/Linux. But it doesn't change the fact that a lot of tools are now missing for various reasons. This should be communicated.