Is base image Ubuntu 16 or 18?

[wlongabaugh]

The Google docs for the Python runtime state that "The Python runtime is based on Ubuntu 18.04", and points to this repo, where indeed the build script specifies os_base=ubuntu18. That change was made back in July 2021. Yet if one goes to the Google container registry page, the 'latest' image (dated Oct 4, 2021):

gcr.io/google-appengine/python@sha256:c6480acd38ca4605e0b83f5196ab6fe8a8b59a0288a7b8216c42dbc45b5de8f6

appears to be for Ubuntu 16. For example, a Container Registry Vulnerability Scan for an AppEngine Flex image deployed with runtime: python shows up with Affected location cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04.

So why the discrepancy? Are Google App Engine Flex Python runtimes based on 18 (per the docs and this repo) or 16 (per what actually appears to show up in the Registry)?

Thanks.

[pkacprzak]

I also researched this issue because I really need to install GNU libc in version at least 2.31 and I need a newer Ubuntu version than 16.04 to be able to install it. I checked a few images, including "latest" and even more recent releases published on Google container registry page that are available up to this day and I added this step to my Dockerfile to check the system version of each image: RUN echo $(cat /etc/*release) - it turns out that all run on Ubuntu 16.04 which is really misleading as @wlongabaugh pointed out.

My question is: is there a way of running image gcr.io/google-appengine/python with Ubuntu 18.04 without building the image from the source by ourselves?

[heyalexchoi]

@donmccasland @bendory should people still be using these images? is this project dead?

[bendory]

Sorry, while I may have contributed code here, I've never been on the actual project team -- so I have no knowledge of the status of this project.