CentOS

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This article is about the operating system. For the Polish-Jewish children's-aid society,
see CENTOS (charity).

CentOS

GNOME Shell desktop in CentOS 8.3

Developer The CentOS Project

(affiliated with Red Hat)

OS family Linux

Working state Current

Source model Open source

Initial release 14 May 2004; 16 years ago[1]

 Stream-8[2] (24 September
Latest release
 2019; 16 months ago) [±]

 8.3.2011[3] (7 December 2020;

52 days ago) [±]

 7.9-2009[4] (12 November

2020; 2 months ago) [±]

Marketing target Servers, desktop

computers, workstations, supercomputers

Update method Release Candidate

Package manager Yum (command

line); PackageKit (graphical); .rpm (binaries

format)

Platforms x86-64, ARM64, and POWER8[a]

Kernel type Linux kernel

Default user interface Bash, GNOME Shell[5]

License GNU GPL and other licenses

Official website centos.org

CentOS (/ˈsɛntɒs/, from Community Enterprise Operating System[6][7]) was a Linux

distribution that provided a free, community-supported computing platform functionally
compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).[8][9] In January
2014, CentOS announced the official joining with Red Hat while staying independent
from RHEL,[10] under a new CentOS governing board.[11][12]
The first CentOS release in May 2004, numbered as CentOS version 2, was forked from
RHEL version 2.1AS.[1] Since version 8, CentOS officially supports the x86-64, ARM64,
and POWER8 architectures. Releases up to version 6 also supported the IA-
32 architecture. As of December 2015, AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are available for
the IA-32 architecture, Power ISA, and for the ARMv7hl and AArch64 variants of
the ARM architecture.[13][14] CentOS 8 was released on 24 September 2019.[15]
In December 2020, Red Hat terminated CentOS development. [16][17] Red Hat will however
continue to support the related rolling-release distro, CentOS Stream.[16][17] As a response,
CentOS founder, Gregory Kurtzer, created the Rocky Linux project as a successor to
the original mission of CentOS.[18] Similarly, Cloud Linux (makers of CloudLinux OS)
announced a new CentOS clone.[19]

Contents
  1History
 2Design
 3Versioning and releases
o 3.1CentOS releases
 3.1.1End-of-support schedule
 3.1.2Older version information
 3.1.2.1CentOS version 7
 3.1.3Latest version information
 3.1.3.1CentOS version 8
o 3.2AltArch releases
o 3.3Add-ons releases
o 3.4Releases without upstream equivalents
 4Special interest groups
 5Architectures
 6Repositories
 7CentOS Stream
 8Notes
 9References
 10Further reading
 11External links

History[edit]
Prior to becoming known under its current name, CentOS originated as a build of CAOS
Linux,[20] which was started by Gregory Kurtzer.[21]
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
users migrated to the CentOS release via yum update.[22]
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. [23]
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. [24] Debian retook the lead
in January 2012.[25]
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". [26] As a result of these changes,
ownership of CentOS trademarks was transferred to Red Hat, [27] 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.[10] A new CentOS governing board was also established. [11]
On December 8, 2020, a representative of the CentOS Governing Board, and Red Hat
employee, announced that the CentOS community would be "shift(ing) focus" from
traditional CentOS Linux, to CentOS Stream. [28] Initial community response to this
announcement was overwhelmingly negative. Soon thereafter, CentOS founder,
Gregory Kurtzer announced a new project to continue the original CentOS focus, which
became known as Rocky Linux.[18] Similarly, Cloud Linux (makers of CloudLinux OS)
announced a new CentOS clone.[19]

Design[edit]
RHEL is available only through a paid subscription service or for development use in a
non-production environment[29] – 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.[30] 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. [10]

Versioning and releases[edit]

CentOS releases[edit]
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.[31]
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 (as of
July 2014) oncoming container and cloud releases, while maintaining a connection to
the related base release version.[32]
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).[33]
On 10 September 2019 CentOS deferred CentOS 8 work for CentOS 7.7 since CentOS
7.x was in production and CentOS 8.x was not in production. Once CentOS 7.7 was
released resources moved back to CentOS 8.0.
On 24 September 2019 CentOS officially released CentOS version 8.0.
End-of-support schedule[edit]
According to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) life cycle,[34] CentOS 5, 6 and 7 will be
"maintained for up to 10 years" as it is based on RHEL. [35] Previously, CentOS 4 had
been supported for seven years.[36]

CentOS Release Full Maintenance

version date updates[37][38] updates[37][38]

3 2004-03-19 2006-07-20 2010-10-31 [39]

4 2005-03-09 2009-03-31 2012-02-29[39] [40]

5 2007-04-12 2014-01-31 2017-03-31[39] [41]

6 2011-07-10 2017-05-10 2020-11-30[39]

7 2014-07-07 2020-08-06 2024-06-30[39]

8 2021-12-31[42]

2019-09-24
Stream-
2024-05-31
8

Stream-
TBA TBA
9

Old version

Older version, still maintained

Latest version

Future release

Older version information[edit]

 CentOS RHEL
showCentOS RHEL Delay
Architectures Kernel release release
version base (days)
date date

CentOS version 7[edit]

CentOS RHEL
showCentOS RHEL Delay
Architectures Kernel release release
version base (days)
date date

Latest version information[edit]

CentOS version 8[edit]

CentOS RHEL
hideCentOS RHEL Delay
Architectures Kernel release release
version base (days)
date date

2019-05-
8.0-1905 8.0 4.18.0-80 2019-09-24[15] 140
07[139][109]

4.18.0- 2020-01- 2019-11-

8.1-1911 8.1 71
147 15[140] 05[141][109]
x86-64, ppc64le,
AArch64
4.18.0- 2020-06- 2020-04-
8.2-2004 8.2 48
193 15[142] 28[143][109]

4.18.0- 2020-12- 2020-11-

8.3-2011 8.3 34
240 07[144] 03[145][109]

AltArch releases[edit]
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.

showCentOS RHEL
Architectures CentOS release date
version base

Add-ons releases[edit]
Software Collections (SCL) is a CentOS repository that provides a set of dynamic [clarification
needed]
 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.[156] (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 /opt directory, and can be
optionally enabled per application by using supplied scl utility. For example, the default
versions of Perl or MySQL remain those provided by the base CentOS installation. [156]

Base CentOS CentOS RHEL Delay

Add-on name Architectures
version release date release date (days)

Software Collections
x86-64 6.4, 6.5[158] 2014-02-19[158] 2013-09-12[157] 160
(SCL) 1.0[157]

Developer Toolset
IA-32, x86-64 6.4 N/A[160] 2013-09-12[159] N/A
2.0[159]

Releases without upstream equivalents[edit]

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 medium. 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[161] using a kickstart configuration file.[162] 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.[163]
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.[164][165]

showCentOS Architecture
Release name RHEL base CentOS release date
version s
Special interest groups[edit]
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. [187]

Architectures[edit]
As of version 8, CentOS fully supports x86-64, POWER8 and 64-bit ARM architectures,
[188]
 while the following architectures are not supported:

 IA-32 in all variants, not supported since CentOS 7

 IA-32 without Physical Address Extension (PAE), not supported since
CentOS 6
 IA-64 (Intel Itanium architecture), was supported in CentOS 3 and 4
 32-bit PowerPC (Apple Macintosh and PowerMac running the G3 or G4
PowerPC processor), beta support was available in CentOS 4
 IBM Mainframe (eServer zSeries and S/390), not supported since CentOS 5
 Alpha, support was available in CentOS 4
 SPARC, beta support was available in CentOS 4
As of December 2015, AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are available for the ARMv7hl
and AArch64 variants of the ARM architecture,[14] and plans exist for supporting other
variants of the ARM architecture. ARM support is a community effort coordinated
through the AltArch SIG.[14][189] AltArch releases of CentOS 7 are also available for the IA-
32 architecture and Power ISA (POWER7 and POWER8 chips).[13]
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).[190][191]

Repositories[edit]
There are three primary CentOS repositories (also known as channels),
containing software packages that make up the main CentOS distribution: [192]

 base  :
contains packages that form CentOS point releases, and gets updated
when the actual point release is formally made available in form of ISO
images.
 updates  : 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.[193][194]
 addons  :provides packages required for building the packages that make up
the main CentOS distribution, but are not provided by the upstream. [c]
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:[195]

 CentOS Extras  : contains packages that provide additional functionality to

CentOS without breaking its upstream compatibility or updating the base
components.
 CentOSPlus  : contains packages that actually upgrade certain base CentOS
components, changing CentOS so that it is not exactly like the upstream
provider's content.
 CentOS-Testing  : 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-Fasttrack  : 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.[193][194][196]
 CR  (Continuous Release) : 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.[197]
 debuginfo  : Contains packages with debugging symbols generated when the
primary packages were built.
 contrib  : Contains packages contributed by CentOS users that do not
overlap with any of the core distribution packages.
 Software Collections  : Provides versions of software newer than those
provided by the base distribution, see above for more details.

CentOS Stream[edit]
Wikinews has related
news:

 Red Hat to move

focus away from
 CentOS in
favour of
Stream; CentOS
team discuss
implications
with Wikinews

CentOS Stream is a rolling-release Linux distribution midstream between

the upstream development in Fedora and the downstream development for RHEL. The
initial release was based on CentOS Linux 8 software packages the project was building
with the latest RHEL 8 development kernel. [198]

Notes[edit]
1. ^ CentOS versions older than 7.0-1406 had official support for i686 with Physical Address
Extension (PAE), additional architectures were supported in the versions older than 4.7, and
currently are provided by AltArch Special Interest Group
2. ^ Installation images for i386, ARM and PowerPC are provided by AltArch Special Interest
Group.
3. ^ This repository does not exist from CentOS 6.