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ntoledo319
ntoledo319

Posted on • Originally published at eolkits.com

"amazon-linux-extras: command not found — it's gone on Amazon Linux 2023"

#aws #linux #devops #sysadmin

You moved an AMI, Dockerfile, or user-data script from Amazon Linux 2 to Amazon Linux 2023, and a line that used to work now dies immediately:

bash: amazon-linux-extras: command not found
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Not a missing package, not a stale repo — the amazon-linux-extras mechanism itself doesn't exist on AL2023. There's nothing to install to bring it back.

Why this happens

Amazon Linux 2 shipped one old baseline of everything in its base repo, so AWS layered the Extras Library on top — amazon-linux-extras enable nginx1.20, amazon-linux-extras install docker, and so on — to get newer versions of common packages without breaking the base image. Amazon Linux 2023 dropped that constraint (and the tool with it): its base dnf repos ship current versions directly, so there's no separate "extras" layer to enable. Anything still calling amazon-linux-extras — a golden-AMI build step, a Dockerfile RUN, a cloud-init runcmd — has no command to run.

The fix

Stop calling amazon-linux-extras on AL2023. What it used to gate now falls into one of three places:

# 1. Most former "extras" packages are just default dnf packages now
sudo dnf install -y docker

# 2. Version-specific ones are version-namespaced package names
sudo dnf install -y python3.11
sudo dnf install -y nginx1.24
sudo dnf install -y postgresql15

# 3. The rest live in SPAL (Supplementary Packages for Amazon Linux) —
#    enable it, then install as normal
sudo dnf install -y python3.11  # example: SPAL packages install like any other dnf package once the repo is present
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Check which bucket your package landed in with a plain search before assuming it's gone:

dnf search <package-name>
dnf list --available | grep <package-name>
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If dnf search and dnf list --available both come up empty, it's likely an EPEL-only package now (see the related Unable to find a match error for that case) rather than an extras casualty.

Fixing the automation, not just the instance

The one-off fix is deleting the amazon-linux-extras line from whatever's broken right now. The durable fix is finding every place that assumption is baked in before it breaks the next build:

grep -rl "amazon-linux-extras" Dockerfile* user-data/ ansible/ packer/ cloud-init/
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Replace each hit with the direct dnf install (or version-namespaced equivalent) for that package, and drop the amazon-linux-extras enable ... step entirely — AL2023 has no topic to enable against.

This is one piece of the broader Amazon Linux 2 → 2023 migration (package manager, firewall, time sync, and Python version all shift at once) — the full checklist is at eolkits.com/fix/amazon-linux-2-eol. If you want to know which instances in your account are still on AL2 before support ends, the free EOLkits scanner checks in about 30 seconds — nothing uploaded, and I maintain it.

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