CentOS

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Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox OS

CentOS (Template:IPAc-en, from Community Enterprise Operating System) is a Linux distribution that provides a free, enterprise-class, community-supported computing platform functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).[1][2] In January 2014, CentOS announced the official joining with Red Hat while staying independent from RHEL,[3] under a new CentOS governing board.[4][5]

The first CentOS release in May 2004, numbered as CentOS version 2, was forked from RHEL version 2.1AS.[6] Since the release of version 7.0, CentOS officially supports only the x86-64 architecture, while versions older than 7.0-1406 also support IA-32 with Physical Address Extension (PAE). Template:As of, AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are available for the IA-32 architecture, Power architecture, and for the ARMv7hl and AArch64 variants of the ARM architecture.[7][8]

History

Prior to becoming known under its current name, CentOS originated as a build artifact of cAos Linux.[9]

In June 2006, David Parsley, the primary developer of Tao Linux (another RHEL clone), announced the retirement of Tao Linux and its rolling into CentOS development. Tao's users migrated to the CentOS release via yum update.[10]

In July 2009, it was reported in an open letter on the CentOS project web site that CentOS's founder, Lance Davis, had disappeared in 2008. Davis had ceased contribution to the project, but continued to hold the registration for the CentOS domain and PayPal account. In August 2009, the CentOS team reportedly made contact with Davis and obtained the centos.info and centos.org domains.[11]

In July 2010, CentOS overtook Debian to become the most popular Linux distribution for web servers, with almost 30% of all Linux web servers using it.[12] Debian retook the lead in January 2012.[13]

In January 2014, Red Hat announced that it would sponsor the CentOS project, "helping to establish a platform well-suited to the needs of open source developers that integrate technologies in and around the operating system".[14] As a result of these changes, ownership of CentOS trademarks was transferred to Red Hat,[15] which now employs most of the CentOS head developers; however, they work as part of Red Hat's Open Source and Standards team, which operates separately from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux team.[3] A new CentOS governing board was also established.[4]

Design

RHEL is available only through a paid subscription service or for development use in a non-production environment[16] – which provides access to software updates and varying levels of technical support. The product is largely composed of software packages distributed under free software licenses and the source code for these packages is made public by Red Hat.

CentOS developers use Red Hat's source code to create a final product very similar to RHEL. Red Hat's branding and logos are changed because Red Hat does not allow them to be redistributed.[17] CentOS is available free of charge. Technical support is primarily provided by the community via official mailing lists, web forums, and chat rooms.

The project is affiliated with Red Hat but aspires to be more public, open, and inclusive. While Red Hat employs most of the CentOS head developers, the CentOS project itself relies on donations from users and organizational sponsors.[3]

Versioning and releases

CentOS releases

CentOS version numbers for releases older than 7.0 have two parts, a major version and a minor version, which correspond to the major version and update set of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) used to build a particular CentOS release. For example, CentOS 6.5 is built from the source packages of RHEL 6 update 5 (also known as RHEL version 6.5), which is a so-called "point release" of RHEL 6.[18]

Starting with version 7.0, CentOS version numbers also include a third part that indicates the monthstamp of the source code the release is based on. For example, version number 7.0-1406 still maps this CentOS release to the zeroth update set of RHEL 7, while "1406" indicates that the source code this release is based on dates from June 2014. Using the monthstamp allows installation images to be reissued for (Template:As of) oncoming container and cloud releases, while maintaining a connection to the related base release version.[19]

Since mid-2006 and starting with RHEL version 4.4, which is formally known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 update 4, Red Hat has adopted a version-naming convention identical to that used by CentOS (for example, RHEL 4.5 or RHEL 6.5).[20]

Older version information

Latest version information

CentOS version Architectures RHEL base Kernel CentOS release date RHEL release date Delay (days)
7.0-1406[95][96] x86-64[97]Template:Efn 7.0 3.10.0-123 Template:Date[19] Template:Date[98] 27
7.1-1503 x86-64 7.1 3.10.0-229 Template:Date[99][100] Template:Date[101] 26
7.2-1511[102] x86-64 7.2 3.10.0-327 Template:Date[103][104] Template:Date[105] 25
7.3-1611 x86-64 7.3 3.10.0-514 Template:Date[106] Template:Date[107] 39
7.4-1708 x86-64 7.4 3.10.0-693 Template:Date[108] Template:Date[109]

[110]

43
7.5-1804 x86-64 7.5 3.10.0-862 Template:Date[111] Template:Date[112]

[113]

31
7.6-1810 x86-64 7.6 3.10.0-957 TBA Template:Date[114]

[115]

TBA

Template:AnchorAltArch releases

AltArch releases are released by the Alternative Architecture Special Interest Group (AltArch SIG) to support architectures that are not supported by the base CentOS releases.

CentOS version Architectures RHEL base CentOS release date
7.1-1503 AArch64 7.1 Template:Date[8]
IA-32 Template:Date[116]
7.2-1511 IA-32 7.2 Template:Date[7]
ARMv7hl Template:Date[7]
PowerPC64 (TechPreview) Template:Date[7]
PowerPC8 LE (TechPreview) Template:Date[7]
7.3-1611 ARMv7hl 7.3 Template:Date
PowerPC8 LE Template:Date
AArch64 Template:Date
IA-32 Template:Date
7.4-1708 ARMv7hl 7.4 Template:Date[117]
PowerPC8 LE Template:Date[118]
PowerPC7 Template:Date[119]
AArch64 Template:Date[120]
IA-32 Template:Date[121]
7.5-1804 ARMv7hl 7.5 Template:Date[122]
PowerPC8 LE Template:Date[111]
PowerPC7 Template:Date[111]
AArch64 Template:Date[111]
IA-32 Template:Date[111]

Template:AnchorAdd-ons releases

Software Collections (SCL) is a CentOS repository that provides a set of dynamic programming languages, database servers, and various related packages. Provided software versions are either more recent than their equivalent versions included in the base CentOS distribution, or are made available as official CentOS packages for the first time.[123] (See also the list of CentOS repositories below.)

Packages available from the SCL do not replace the default system tools provided with CentOS. Instead, a parallel set of tools is installed in the Template:Mono directory, and can be optionally enabled per application by using supplied Template:Mono utility. For example, the default versions of Perl or MySQL remain those provided by the base CentOS installation.[123]

Add-on name Architectures Base CentOS version CentOS release date RHEL release date Delay (days)
Software Collections (SCL) 1.0[124] x86-64 6.4, 6.5[125] Template:Date[125] Template:Date[124] 160
Developer Toolset 2.0[126] IA-32, x86-64 6.4 Template:N/a[127] Template:Date[126] Template:N/a

End-of-support schedule

According to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) life cycle,[128] CentOS 5, 6 and 7 will be "maintained for up to 10 years" as it is based on RHEL.[129] Previously, CentOS 4 had been supported for seven years.[130]

CentOS version Release date Full updates[131][132] Maintenance updates[131][132]
scope="row" Template:Version Template:Date Template:Date Template:Date
scope="row" Template:Version Template:Date Template:Date Template:Date[133]
scope="row" Template:Version Template:Date Template:Date Template:Date[134]
scope="row" Template:Version Template:Date Template:Date Template:Date
scope="row" Template:Version Template:Date Q4 2020 Template:Date
Template:Version

Releases without upstream equivalents

Some of the ISO images released by the CentOS project have no direct upstream equivalents. They are created for specific purposes, such as for providing a live bootable image, or for providing a reduced-size installation media. In addition to those listed below, there are also AltArch releases, which also have no direct upstream equivalents.

LiveCD and LiveDVD images contain a bootable compressed file system, created by a set of custom scripts[135] using a kickstart configuration file.[136] These live images can be also installed to hard disk, thus obtaining a fully functional CentOS installation. The set of packages installed that way on a hard disk can not be adjusted during the installation, as that is a simple transfer of the image existing on CD/DVD, to a hard disk. After booting from hard disk, yum can be used for adding or removing packages.[137]

MinimalCD images contain a minimum of packages required for a functional installation, with no compromises in security or network usability. These minimal images use the standard CentOS installer with all of its regular features minus the selection of packages. Yum can be used after the installation is completed to add or remove packages.[138][139]

Template:AnchorSpecial interest groups

Special interest groups (SIGs) are organized portions of the CentOS community that open paths for building specialized variants of CentOS, which fulfill specific sets of requirements. SIGs have the freedom to modify and enhance CentOS in various ways, including adding more cutting-edge software, rebuilding existing packages depending on the requirements, providing alternative desktop environments, or making CentOS available on otherwise unsupported architectures.[156]

Architectures

As of version 7, CentOS fully supports only the x86-64 architecture,[157] while the following architectures are not supported:

Template:As of, AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are available for the ARMv7hl and AArch64 variants of the ARM architecture,[8] and plans exist for supporting other variants of the ARM architecture. ARM support is a community effort coordinated through the AltArch SIG.[8][158] AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are also available for the IA-32 architecture and Power architecture (POWER7 and POWER8 chips).[7]

A Live CD version of CentOS is available at mirror.centos.org. A bootable Live USB image of CentOS can be created manually or with UNetbootin.

CentOS images are also available on Amazon's EC2 cloud, in form of prebuilt and already published Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).[159][160]

Template:AnchorRepositories

There are three primary CentOS repositories (also known as channels), containing software packages that make up the main CentOS distribution:[161]

  • baseTemplate:Snd contains packages that form CentOS point releases, and gets updated when the actual point release is formally made available in form of ISO images.
  • updatesTemplate:Snd contains packages that serve as security, bugfix or enhancement updates, issued between the regular update sets for point releases. Bugfix and enhancement updates released this way are only those unsuitable to be released through the CentOS-Fasttrack repository described below.[162][163]
  • addonsTemplate:Snd provides packages required for building the packages that make up the main CentOS distribution, but are not provided by the upstream.Template:Efn

The CentOS project provides several additional repositories that contain software packages not provided by the default base and updates repositories. Those repositories include the following:[164]

  • CentOS ExtrasTemplate:Snd contains packages that provide additional functionality to CentOS without breaking its upstream compatibility or updating the base components.
  • CentOSPlusTemplate:Snd contains packages that actually upgrade certain base CentOS components, changing CentOS so that it is not exactly like the upstream provider's content.
  • CentOS-TestingTemplate:Snd serves as a proving ground for packages on their way to CentOSPlus and CentOS Extras. Offered packages may or may not replace core CentOS packages, and are not guaranteed to work properly.
  • CentOS-FasttrackTemplate:Snd contains bugfix and enhancement updates issued from time to time, between the regular update sets for point releases. The packages released this way serve as close candidates for the inclusion into the next point release. This repository does not provide security updates, and does not contain packages unsuitable for uncertain inclusion into point releases.[162][163][165]
  • CR (Continuous Release)Template:Snd makes generally available packages that will appear in the next point release of CentOS. The packages are made available on a testing and hotfix basis, until the actual point release is formally released in form of ISO images.[166]
  • debuginfoTemplate:Snd contains packages with debugging symbols generated when the primary packages were built
  • contribTemplate:Snd contains packages contributed by CentOS users that do not overlap with any of the core distribution packages
  • Software CollectionsTemplate:Snd provides versions of software newer than those provided by the base distribution, see above for more details

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

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Further reading

External links

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