Comparing AL2023 and AL2027
AL2027 Preview
AL2027 is currently available for preview. It is intended for evaluation and testing only and is not recommended for production workloads.
The following table summarizes the major component changes between AL2023 and AL2027.
| Component | AL2023 | AL2027 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SELinux | Permissive | Enforcing | SELinux is now set to Enforcing mode by default. |
| Kernel | 6.1 (default); 6.12 and 6.18 available | 7.1 | Kernel packages use versioned names, such as kernel7.1. The current
preview release ships kernel version 7.1. Amazon Linux adds newer kernel versions over time, as with
AL2023. |
| GCC | 11.5 | 16.1 | Major toolchain upgrade from GCC 11 to 16. |
| glibc | 2.34 | 2.43 | |
| binutils | 2.41 | 2.46 | |
| LLVM/Clang | 15, 18, 19 (separate SRPMs) | 22 (unified SRPM) | clang, lld, lldb, and libomp are built from a single source package. |
| systemd | 252 | 260 | Support for System V service scripts has been removed. |
| RPM | 4.16 | 6.0 | OpenPGP signature verification uses the rpm-sequoia implementation. |
| DNF | DNF 4.14 | DNF5 5.4 | DNF5 replaces DNF. The dnf and yum commands run DNF5.
The DNF (version 4) Python API (python3-dnf) is not available. Use
python3-libdnf5 instead. See
Package management tool. |
| Python | 3.9 | 3.14 | The default python3 is Python 3.14. |
| zlib | 1.2.11 | zlib-ng 2.3 | Drop-in replacement through the zlib-ng-compat package. |
| PCRE | PCRE 8.x + PCRE2 | PCRE2 only | PCRE1 has been removed. |
Toolchain considerations
The GCC 11 to 16 jump is the largest toolchain change. Code compiled on AL2023 generally runs on AL2027, but recompiling might expose new warnings or errors because of stricter defaults in GCC 16.
RPM 6.0 replaces 4.16. If you maintain custom spec files, test them against the new RPM version.
LLVM 22 is built from a single unified SRPM. The separate clang, lld,
and lldb source packages no longer exist.