OpenELA has announced ELValidated, an open-source tool that checks the compatibility of Enterprise Linux distributions. The platform aims to help organizations and developers reduce testing costs and increase confidence in different Linux distributions.
Brent Schroeder of SUSE points to the growing need for choice in Enterprise Linux distributions. IT environments are littered with different Linux distros for all kinds of purposes. ELValidated aims to remove the potential headaches associated with this complexity.
Enterprise Linux has been getting easier to manage for some time now. In April, OpenELA launched the Leapp project to enable in-place upgrades for Enterprise Linux. Previously, this was only possible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The ELValidates verification tool is a step further from Oracle, CIQ, and SUSE. Gregory Kurtzer of CIQ, who also developed Rocky Linux, emphasizes that for a long time there was no clear way to define and validate strict compatibility.
Demonstrating binary compatibility
ELValidated systematically checks whether an Enterprise Linux distribution meets the set standards. The tool verifies Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) of critical libraries against published standards hosted by OpenELA.
According to OpenELA, vendors whose systems meet these standards can be sure of binary compatibility with the Enterprise Linux standard. In other words, all applications should work properly. This means that software developers do not have to tinker with their applications for compatibility, and ISVs do not have to perform tests if an app “should work” but is not binary compatible.
Filling a gap
According to Greg Marsden of Oracle, who also sits on the OpenELA board, the tool primarily helps achieve one of OpenELA’s original goals. “Although we all strive to ensure our Enterprise Linux systems are compatible, ELValidated lets us really prove that, to ourselves, as we build the platforms, and to our users, where the compatibility really matters.”
“For years, we’ve had general standards for Linux like the LSB, but there’s never been a clear, open and repeatable way to define and validate strict compatibility specifically for Enterprise Linux,” Kurtzer said. According to him, CentOS made this problem less urgent at the time by serving as a common reference.
With CentOS no longer available as a shared foundation due to Red Hat’s withdrawal in 2023, the industry lacked a reliable standard. ELValidated aims to fill this gap by providing the entire ecosystem (distributors, ISVs, IHVs, and users) with a clear way to prove compatibility.
OpenELA’s compatibility reports are now available via GitHub. ISVs, IHVs, and Linux developers can use them to validate that their applications run on all Linux distributions without modifications or recompilations.