Add AmazonLinux-2023 as alias for RHEL-9

[jeroen]

AmazonLinux-2023 is compatible with RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/etc v9 but currently we get

rig add 4.5.2
# [ERROR] Failed to resolve R version: Cannot download JSON: HTTP status client error (404 Not Found) for url (https://api.r-hub.io/rversions/resolve/4.5.2/linux-amzn-2023/aarch64)

[grantmcdermott]

+1 would be very useful for my team at work, thanks!

[gaborcsardi]

You can already do this by setting the env var: RIG_PLATFORM=rhel-9.

But in the end it does not work because rig tries to install the epel-release package, and that does not work on Amazon Linux 2023:

❯ docker run -it amazonlinux:2023 bash
bash-5.2# yum install -y https://github.com/r-lib/rig/releases/download/latest/r-rig-latest-1.$(arch).rpm
Amazon Linux 2023 repository                                                 2.4 MB/s |  55 MB     00:23
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:22 ago on Fri Mar 27 14:17:27 2026.
r-rig-latest-1.aarch64.rpm                                                   662 kB/s | 3.5 MB     00:05
[...]
Installed:
  r-rig-0.7.0-1.aarch64

Complete!
bash-5.2# export RIG_PLATFORM=rhel-9
bash-5.2# rig resolve release
4.5.3 https://cdn.posit.co/r/rhel-9/pkgs/R-4.5.3-1-1.aarch64.rpm
bash-5.2# rig add release
[INFO] Downloading https://cdn.posit.co/r/rhel-9/pkgs/R-4.5.3-1-1.aarch64.rpm -> /tmp/rig/R-4.5.3-1-1.aarch64.rpm
[INFO] Running "bash -c rpm -q epel-release || dnf install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm"
[INFO] > package epel-release is not installed
[INFO] > Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:23 ago on Fri Mar 27 14:17:27 2026.
[INFO] > epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm                 20 kB/s |  19 kB     00:00
[INFO] > Error:
[INFO] >  Problem: conflicting requests
[INFO] >   - nothing provides redhat-release >= 9 needed by epel-release-9-10.el9.noarch from @commandline
[INFO] > (try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages)
[ERROR] command ["bash", "-c", "rpm -q epel-release || dnf install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm"] exited with code 1

So Amazon Linux would have to be added as a separate distro. Until then you can do this:

bash-5.2# rig resolve release
4.5.3 https://cdn.posit.co/r/rhel-9/pkgs/R-4.5.3-1-1.aarch64.rpm
bash-5.2# dnf install https://cdn.posit.co/r/rhel-9/pkgs/R-4.5.3-1-1.aarch64.rpm
[...]

bash-5.2# rig system make-links
[INFO] Adding /usr/local/bin/R-4.5.3 -> /opt/R/4.5.3/bin/R

bash-5.2# rig ls
* name   version  aliases
------------------------------------------
  4.5.3
bash-5.2# rig default 4.5.3

bash-5.2# rig system add-pak
[INFO] Installing pak for R 4.5.3
[INFO] > trying URL 'https://r-lib.github.io/p/pak/stable/source/linux-gnu/aarch64/src/contrib/../../../../../linux/aarch64/pak_0.9.2_R-4-5_aarch64-linux.tar.gz'
[...]

You will miss some of the features, though, e.g. the repository setup.

[grantmcdermott]

Thanks @gaborcsardi, very helpful.

I'm happy to take a crack at a PR. Based on your comments and my investigation of rig's scaffolding , here's what I'm thinking:

1. Platform detection (platform.rs): Keep amzn/2023 as-is from /etc/os-release (i.e, no rhel aliasing).

2. R version resolution (common.rs): Map linux-amzn-2023 to linux-rhel-9 only for the r-hub API call, since the Posit R builds for RHEL 9 are binary-compatible with AL2023.

3. Install tooling (linux.rs): Add an amzn/2023 branch in select_linux_tools() with a simple dnf install -y. No EPEL or extra system repo setup.

4. Repo setup (repos.json): This is the part I'd appreciate your input on. There are no AL2023-specific PPM (P3M?) binaries, but the "manylinux" flavour has us covered (setup). Two options:

   • A: Add an amzn platform glob to a new P3M entry in repos.json pointing at the manylinux_2_28 URL directly.
   • B: Make a runtime logic change to sc_add flow, which auto-enables the "generic" P3M manylinux for amzn (and skip the distro-specific P3M entries).

Option 4A is the easiest and most explicit for this AL2023 case (so I lean here). But option 4B is more flexible and could generalize to other unsupported distros in the future.

Do you have a preference?

LMK if you agree and I'll ready a PR. Thanks!