Supported platforms

Cinc builds and tests packages for a fixed set of operating systems. This page lists them and explains how platforms are added and dropped.

Policy

When a platform is dropped

• A platform is end-of-life on the eol date listed by endoflife.date for that release. That is the end of free security updates. Paid extended support (Ubuntu Pro/ESM, Debian ELTS, Windows ESU) doesn’t count.
• FreeBSD and SLES are judged on the major version (FreeBSD 14, SLES 15), not on point releases or service packs.
• Each release line stops building an EOL platform in its first release after that date.
• Packages already published stay on downloads.cinc.sh, and omnitruck.cinc.sh keeps serving the last build made for that platform. Hosts on an EOL OS keep working; they just don’t get new releases.
• Once no supported line builds a platform, its builders are retired. Re-releases of old versions build only platforms that are still supported.

When a platform is added

• Cinc adds new major and LTS releases of operating systems a product already supports: Ubuntu LTS releases, Debian, AlmaLinux/RHEL, Rocky Linux, SLES and FreeBSD major versions, every macOS major version, and Windows Server LTSC releases.
• A new release is added in the product’s next release once a builder for it exists. Builders come first, then the omnibus toolchain, then the products.
• Ubuntu interim releases and FreeBSD point releases are not added. A brand-new OS family is a separate decision.

Which release lines follow it

• Every supported line follows these rules: Cinc Client 19 and 18, Cinc Auditor 7 and 5, Cinc Server 15.x and 16, and Cinc Workstation 26.
• A line that reaches its own end-of-life within six months only drops platforms; it doesn’t add new ones. Cinc Server 15.x is in that state ahead of the upstream Chef Infra Server end-of-life in November 2026.

Platform notes

• SLES and openSUSE Leap: sles packages are built on SUSE’s free SLE Base Container Images. SLES 15 needs SP6 or newer. openSUSE Leap hosts are served the matching sles package.
• Windows: one build covers every supported Windows version. Windows Server 2016 is the oldest supported server release until it reaches end-of-life on 2027-01-12; 2019 becomes the floor after that. On desktops, Windows 11 is supported and Windows 10 is not. Older version names under downloads.cinc.sh/.../windows/ (such as 2012r2) are aliases kept so existing installers keep working, not a statement of support.
• macOS: Intel (x86_64) packages continue for every macOS release that still supports Intel and is not EOL. macOS 26 is the last Intel release, so Intel builds end when macOS 26 does.

Current platforms

The table shows the architectures each release line builds for each platform, generated from the lines’ CI configuration by the platform lifecycle checker in ci-tools. It includes the October 2026 changes (FreeBSD 13, macOS 14 and Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 dropped; FreeBSD 15, Rocky Linux 10, SLES 16 and Ubuntu 26.04 added where listed), which take effect in each line’s next release.

Cinc Server 16 is in pre-release; its platforms will be listed here when it ships.

Coming up

Cinc tracks these automatically: a weekly job compares what each line builds with endoflife.date and keeps an issue listing platforms to drop, end-of-life dates coming due, and new releases to add.

See Builders for how each platform is built.