Naming and versioning - Amazon Linux 2022
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Amazon Linux 2022 is in preview release and is subject to change.

Naming and versioning

Amazon Linux 2022 (AL2022) provides a minor release every three months. Each release is identified by an increment from 0 to N. 0 refers to the original major release for that iteration.

For example, minor releases of Amazon Linux 2022 have the following format:

  • 2022.0.20220301

  • 2022.1.20220601

  • 2022.2.20220901

The corresponding Amazon Linux 2022 AMIs have the following format:

  • al2022-ami-2022.0.20220301.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

  • al2022-ami-2022.1.20220601.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

  • al2022-ami-2022.2.20220901.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

Within a specific minor version, regular AMI releases occur with a timestamp of the date of the AMI release.

  • al2022-ami-2022.0.20220301.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

  • al2022-ami-2022.0.20220410.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

  • al2022-ami-2022.0.20220520.0-kernel-5.15-x86_64

The recommended method for identifying an Amazon Linux 2 or Amazon Linux 2022 instance starts with reading the Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) string from /etc/system-release-cpe. Then, split the string into its fields. Last, read the platform and version values.

Amazon Linux 2022 also introduces new files for platform identification:

  • /etc/amazon-linux-release symlinks to /etc/system-release

  • /etc/amazon-linux-release-cpe symlinks to /etc/system-release-cpe

These two files indicate that an instance is Amazon Linux. There's no need to read a file or split the string into fields, unless you want to know the specific platform and version values.