python base images not updated for months in dockerHub (systemic issue)

[m10d]

I've searched the issues & forums for an issue covering this general issue - found several specific to a particular missing tag but nothing for what appears to be the systemic issue - hope this isn't a dup.

It appears to me that numerous python base images are not being properly built/pushed to Docker Hub (but the corresponding node, dotnet etc are published & fresh).

Two of many examples:

• balenalib/amd64-alpine https://hub.docker.com/search?q=balenalib%2Famd64-alpine
  • *-node, *-golang, *-dotnet all updated within days ago (one day, at time of writing)
  • balenalib/amd64-alpine-python uniquely is 3 months ago
• balenalib/amd64-ubuntu https://hub.docker.com/search?q=balenalib%2Famd64-ubuntu
  • again all other languages are updated in the last few days (as of writing, 3 days ago)
  • but balenalib/amd64-ubuntu-python was updated 4 MONTHS ago

Is this a known issue? The docs clearly say that python support includes version 3.10.2 (https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/base-images/base-images/), but only the many-month old 3.10.0 is available as a published tag.

[nghiant2710]

Hi @m10d, thank you for the report, since we just moved our base images to new build servers (still working on tuning the servers) so our base images are rebuilt less frequently and some tags might be missing due to build server issues, also languages have different release cycle so it affects how often a base image is updated.

For Python stack, we just added support for latest releases yesterday (balena-io/contracts@53db535) and new base images will be released very soon, we will update the docs when new tags are available on Dockerhub (I will keep this issue opening until the new images are ready).

[m10d]

Hi @nghiant2710 thank you for your quick reply.

Your explanation makes sense with the exception difference of the size of missing time window(s) between python and other languages.

Checking one random image, https://hub.docker.com/r/balenalib/amd64-ubuntu-golang/tags?page=23, I see rebuilt images going back somewhat consistently for the last several months. IE there is no gap of > 1 month for amd64-ubuntu-golang... Whereas Python stands (apparently) unique as having this large (several month) gap.

What piqued my interest to look into this was note from several months ago in one of my base images; I apt install'd python manually in the balenalib/amd64-ubuntu (no *-python) based container, with a comment in my dockerfile that "python ubuntu builds do not seem maintained(?)", comment checked in several months ago. So it appears there were very infrequent builds comming out back then.

questions:

1. what frequency do you expect these *-python builds to be being published now?
2. Is there a reason python would be different cadence than other languages (even if the python minor version didn't change, the ubuntu system surely receives patches often that would be picked up on rebuild?
3. Does your explanation account for the fact that the other languages have not experienced this long gap in base image creation / publishing?

thank you.

[jvelo]

Hello – Are there plans to publish 3.12 images ?
Thanks in advance