richlander/dotnet-release/update-os-packages

Update OS Packages

Audit and update os-packages.json files in the dotnet/core repository. These files declare the Linux distribution packages required to run .NET on each supported distro release.

When to use

• A new distro version is released (e.g. Ubuntu 26.04, Alpine 3.23) and packages need to be added or verified
• Package names may have changed upstream (e.g. libicu76 → libicu78)
• Periodic audit to ensure all listed package names are still correct

Prerequisites

The release-notes tool is installed globally. Run release-notes --help to confirm.

Inputs

The user provides:

• dotnet/core path — local path to the dotnet/core repo (e.g. ~/git/core)
• Versions to audit — which .NET versions to check (e.g. "8.0+", "10.0 only"), defaults to all active versions

Process

1. Identify scope

Determine which .NET versions to audit. Active versions are those with os-packages.json files in the release-notes/ directory. Skip versions the user excludes.

For each version, read release-notes/{version}/os-packages.json.

2. Verify package names

Run the release-notes verify os-packages command for each version. The tool checks each package name against upstream distro package feeds and reports mismatches.

3. Cross-reference with supported-os.json

For each version, read release-notes/{version}/supported-os.json and check:

• Every Linux distro+version in supported-os.json has a matching entry in os-packages.json
• No distro+version in os-packages.json is absent from supported-os.json (stale entries)

Report gaps to the user. Do not add new distro entries automatically — the user decides whether to add them.

4. Apply fixes

For confirmed mismatches (wrong package names):

• Update the package name in os-packages.json across all affected .NET versions (the same distro release uses the same packages regardless of .NET version)
• Use the edit tool to make surgical changes

5. Verify and commit

1. Validate all modified JSON files parse correctly (use a file-based app to deserialize with Dotnet.Release.Support types)
2. Show the user a summary of changes
3. On confirmation, commit with a descriptive message

Key facts

• Package names like libicu are versioned on Debian/Ubuntu (e.g. libicu76) but not on Fedora/RHEL/SUSE (just libicu)
• OpenSSL on Debian 13+ and Ubuntu 24.04+ uses the t64 suffix (libssl3t64)
• Alpine uses different package names entirely (icu-libs, libssl3, krb5)
• The same distro release always has the same packages regardless of .NET version — fixes should be applied across all os-packages.json files