name	update-os-packages
description	Audit and update os-packages.json files in dotnet/core to ensure Linux distribution package names are correct. Verifies package names against upstream package repositories and fixes mismatches.

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

Validate all modified JSON files parse correctly (use a file-based app to deserialize with Dotnet.Release.Support types)
Show the user a summary of changes
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

name	update-os-packages
description	Audit and update os-packages.json files in dotnet/core to ensure Linux distribution package names are correct. Verifies package names against upstream package repositories and fixes mismatches.