Ubuntu 24.04 singularity-container package vs GitHub singularity-ce releases

[David Trudgian]

All,

The SingularityCE project now releases packages built for Ubuntu 24.04 from our GitHub repository:

https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/releases

It recently came to our attention that the `singularity-container` package, which provides SingularityCE, has re-entered Ubuntu's universe repository with the 24.04 LTS release (noble):

https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/singularity-container

While we welcome distributions including SingularityCE in their repositories, we ask that you note that:

* The singularity-container package in Ubuntu / Debian repositories is likely to become outdated, due to the policies of those distributions of not making major updates to software within a stable release.

* The singularity-container package is built with many dependencies replaced with distribution packaged versions, so that they do not match the versions used in the SingularityCE GitHub builds, or builds from source.

* The singularity-container package has a number of patches applied by the Debian / Ubuntu maintainers.

As a result, the `singularity-container` package is not the same source code that is built and tested by the SingularityCE project. Any bugs fround in the Ubuntu / Debian singularity-container packages should be reported to the package maintainer, and not to the SingularityCE project - unless first confirmed against the version distributed by the project through GitHub.

Note that the EL / EPEL RPM packaging of SingularityCE is maintained by a project member, and we welcome direct issue reports as it is built from unmodified source.