[Packaging][CentOS] Drop support for 7

[kou]

Describe the enhancement requested

Because CentOS 7 will reach EOL on 2024-06-30: https://www.centos.org/download/

End-of-life
2024-06-30 (end of RHEL 7 Maintenance Support 2 Phase)

We can drop support for CentOS 7 after we release 16.0.0 because 17.0.0 will be released after 2024-06-30.

Component(s)

Packaging

[xhochy]

A word of caution: conda-forge still uses CentOS as the base image to built binaries. We're in the progress to move to a newer base image but as we need an alternative to CentOS now, it takes a bit more time. Progress here: conda-forge/conda-forge.github.io#1941

The relevant part is probably already tested by the crossbow conda jobs, though.

[kou]

Thanks for the info!

I'll remove only https://github.com/apache/arrow/tree/main/dev/tasks/linux-packages/apache-arrow/yum/centos-7 and related files for this issue. So conda will not be affected by this.

[ianmcook]

Please see this comment: #41395 (comment)

Let's discuss this in the PR please.

[amoeba]

Now that #42129 is merged, the original task in this issue to drop support for Centos 7 can now be considered on hold for the time being. I think we can and should leave this issue open for visibility though.

[amoeba]

To add on to the above: For whenever the project decides to move forward with dropping support for Centos 7, the original PR, #41395, would be good reference for restarting the work.

[raulcd]

@ianmcook @amoeba is support for Centos 7 still necessary? The original comment suggested some months, it's been close to a year, just to validate if this is still required or we can drop support now?

[ianmcook]

@raulcd I will check and get back to you in a couple of days

[raulcd]

Thanks @ianmcook no rush, it was just a follow up to ensure whether this was still necessary.

[ianmcook]

@raulcd through the next 1–2 release cycles, we would like to try to preserve CentOS 7 support if feasible. Please enlist help from @amoeba and others at Voltron Data to assist where needed