Codespaces: Default Image Improvements

When you work in a codespace, the environment you are working in is created using a development container, hosted on a virtual machine. If you don’t define a configuration in your repository, GitHub creates a codespace using a default Linux image. This Linux image includes common languages and runtimes such as Python, Node.js, JavaScript, TypeScript etc. to help you get started with an environment that you can further customize or use as is based on your team’s needs.

‘Zero-configuration’ getting started experience for machine learning users

With this update, we’ve released a new version of the default image that enables a seamless getting started experience for machine learning scenarios:

  • The default image now has Jupyter pre-installed by default so that you can immediately run jupyter notebook or jupyter lab from the terminal to get started with your data science project.
  • The default image also has the following commonly used machine learning specific Python libraries pre-installed by default:
    • For numeric computing: numpy, pandas, scipy
    • For data visualizations: matplotlib, seaborn
    • For model building: scikit-learn, tensorflow, keras, torch
    • For data fetching: requests
  • Lastly, you can include any additional project-dependent Python packages in the requirements.txt file, and those will be automatically installed at a user scope when you create your codespace.

Additional updates

  • Alongside these improvements, the default image has been updated with the following tools to optimize for speed and costs associated with default codespaces. We’ve also updated the major version of the image to 2 since the removal of these toolsets introduces breaking changes. While some of the tools are not included by default anymore, you can always add these by creating your own devcontainer configuration.
    Tools added:
    • Node 14
    • Node 16
    • Python 3.9
    • Python 3.10
    • Conda 4.12
    • Java 11
    • Maven 3.8
    • Ruby 3.0
    • Ruby 3.1
    • PHP 8.0
    • PHP 8.1
    • PHP Composer 2.3
    • Hugo 0.96
    Tools removed:
    • Node 12
    • Python 3.8
    • Conda 4.8
    • .NET 5.0
    • Ruby 2.7
    • PHP 7.2
    • PHP 7.3
    • PHP Composer 2.0
    • Hugo 0.90
    • Maven 3.6
    • PowerShell
    • Az CLI
    • Rust
  • Lastly, as a part of this update, for tools that have LTS support (e.g. node, python), the default image will include the latest two LTS releases going forward.

To learn more, check out the latest Codespaces default image configuration.

Enhanced 2FA experience for npm accounts: public beta

A variety of improvements to the npm 2FA experience are now in public beta, including:

  • Support for registering multiple second factors, such as security keys, biometric devices, and authentication applications
  • A new 2FA configuration menu to manage keys and recovery codes
  • Full CLI support for login and publish capabilities with physical security keys and biometric devices in npm 6 and higher
  • Ability to view and regenerate recovery codes

To learn more about configuring 2FA, see Configuring two-factor authentication.
To learn more about 2FA in general, see About two-factor authentication.
For questions and comments, open a discussion in our feedback repository.

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GitHub Actions: Beta of Ubuntu 22.04 for GitHub-hosted runners is now available

A beta of the Ubuntu 22.04 runner image for GitHub Actions is now available. Start using GitHub Actions to build software on the latest version of Ubuntu by updating your jobs to include runs-on: ubuntu-22.04

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '14'
      - run: npm install -g bats
      - run: bats -v

The Ubuntu 22.04 Actions runner image has different tools and tool versions than ubuntu 20.04. See the difference between the two OS versions here. Click here for the full list of software available on Ubuntu 22.04.

If you spot any issues with your workflows when using the image, please let us know by creating an issue in the virtual-environments repository.

While the runner image is in beta, you may experience longer queue times during peak usage hours.

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