WIP release notes and other changes for release 9.4

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docs/release_notes/9_4.md

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+---
+title: Current Release 9.4
+tags:
+  - 9.4
+  - 9.4 release
+  - Rocky 9.4
+---
+
+# Release notes for Rocky Linux 9.4
+
+You can find a complete list of most changes in the [upstream release notes found here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/index).
+
+## Upgrading
+
+You can upgrade from Rocky Linux 9.x to Rocky Linux 9.4 by running `sudo dnf -y upgrade`.
+
+!!! Note
+
+    Rocky Linux does not offer an upgrade path from any version of Rocky Linux 8. We recommend doing a fresh OS install to move to Rocky Linux 9.4.
+
+## Images
+
+Several images are available along with the normal install images, including cloud and container platforms.
+
+You can find more on the artifacts produced by the Cloud Special Interest Group, and information on how to get involved on the [SIG/Cloud Wiki page](https://sig-cloud.rocky.page/).
+
+## Installing
+
+Prior to installing, [ensure compatibility of your CPU with this procedure!](https://docs.rockylinux.org/gemstones/test_cpu_compat/)
+
+To install Rocky Linux 9.4, head to the [download page](https://rockylinux.org/download/) and download the version you need for your architecture.
+
+## The Rocky team release highlights
+
+### Cloud and Live Image Updates
+
+#### New image build workflow and process
+
+Most images for the 9.4 release were created using a new image builder: [KIWI](https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi/), from OpenSUSE. The images aim to be feature complete with the old images, and no serious regressions are intended. If you find a bug, please let us know and we will do our best to resolve or explain any differences.
+
+The images still built with imagefactory are: Vagrant-VBox, Vagrant-VMware, and OCP-Base (Oracle Cloud Platform). The remaining Cloud, Container, and Vagrant images were built using KIWI. The new build workflow will enable Rocky Linux to provide more frequent updates to our images on all cloud providers.
+
+You are invited to check out the [KIWI configuration](https://git.resf.org/sig_core/rocky-kiwi-descriptions/src/branch/r9) used as well as our [toolkit](https://git.resf.org/sig_core/toolkit) used to invoke KIWI.
+
+#### Azure - Community Galleries and Publisher Change
+
+The Rocky Linux publisher account for Microsoft Azure has changed, and previous images are now deprecated. For more information, including details on how to migrate to the new account, please visit the [forums post](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-images-on-azure-important-update/13721).
+
+In addition to the Azure Marketplace, Rocky Linux is available for free on the Azure Community Gallery, providing incredibly easy access to run Rocky on Microsoft Azure. Instructions on how to utilize the Community Gallery images can be found on this [news post](https://rockylinux.org/news/rocky-on-azure-community-gallery/).
+
+### New and notable
+
+## Major changes
+
+For a complete list of major changes, see the [upstream listing here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/overview#overview-major-changes).
+
+Highlights and new features from this release are detailed next.
+
+### Image builder
+
+* From Rocky Linux 9.4 forward, you can specify arbitrary custom mount points except for specific paths that are reserved for the operating system
+* Creation of different partitioning modes is now available including `auto-lvm`, `lvm`, and `raw`
+* Customize tailor options for a profile and add it to your blueprint customizations by using selected and unselected options to add and remove rules
+
+### Security
+
+Listed below are security-related highlights in the latest Rocky Linux 9.4 release. For a complete list of security-related changes, see the [upstream link here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/new-features#new-features-security).
+
+* **SELinux** userspace release 3.6 introduces deny rules for further customizing policies
+* **Keylime** server components, the verifier and registrar, are available as Containers
+* **Rsyslog** processing system introduces customizable TLS/SSL encryption settings and additional options that relate to capability dropping
+* **OpenSSL** TLS toolkit adds a drop-in directory for provider-specific configuration files
+* **libkcapi** 1.4.0 introduces new tools and options. Notably, with the new `-T` option, you can specify target file names in hash-sum calculations
+* **stunnel 5.7.1** TLS/SSL tunneling service changes the behavior of OpenSSL 1.1 and later versions in FIPS mode. Besides this change, this version provides many new features such as support for modern PostgreSQL clients
+
+### Dynamic programming languages, web, and database servers
+
+For a detailed list of the changes in this category see the [upstream link here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/new-features#new-features-dynamic-programming-languages-web-and-database-servers).
+
+Later versions of the following Application Streams are now available:
+
+* **Python 3.12**
+* **Ruby 3.3** available as a module stream
+* **PHP 8.2** available as a module stream
+* **nginx 1.24** available as a module stream
+* **MariaDB 10.11** available as a module stream
+* **PostgreSQL 16** available as a module stream
+
+The following applications have been upgraded:
+
+* **Git** rebased to version 2.43.0
+* **Git LFS** rebased to version 3.4.1
+
+### Containers
+
+For details on the changes in this category [see the upstream link here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/new-features#new-features-containers).
+
+Notable changes include:
+
+* The `podman build farm` command for creating multi-architecture container images is available as a Technology Preview
+* Podman now supports `containers.conf` modules to load a predetermined set of configurations
+* The Container Tools package is updated
+* Podman v4.9 RESTful API now displays data of progress when you pull or push an image to the registry
+* SQLite is now fully supported as a default database backend for podman
+* `Containerfile` now supports multi-line HereDoc instructions
+* `pasta` as a network name is now deprecated
+* The BoltDB database backend is now deprecated
+* The `container-tools:4.0` module is now deprecated
+* The Container Network Interface (CNI) network stack is deprecated and will be removed in a future release
+
+### Compilers and development tools
+
+For details on the changes in this category [see the upstream link here](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/new-features#new-features-compilers-and-development-tools)
+
+* LLVM Toolset rebased to version 17.0
+* Rust Toolset rebased to version 1.75.0
+* Go Toolset rebased to version 1.21.0
+* Clang resource directory moved (from `usr/lib64/clang/17` to `usr/lib/clang/17`)
+* `elfutils` rebased to version 0.190
+* `systemtap` rebased to version 5.0
+* Updated GCC Toolset 13
+* `pcp` updated to version 6.2.0
+* New `grafana-selinux` package
+* New processor microarchitectures supported in `papi`
+* New package `maven-openjdk21`
+* New package `libzip-tools`
+* `cmake` rebased to version 3.26
+
+## Known issues
+
+Many known issues exist in 9.4 including those related to:
+
+* Installer and image creation
+* Security
+* Software management
+* Shells and command-line tools
+* Infrastructure services
+* Networking
+* Kernel
+* File systems and storage
+* Dynamic programing languages, web and database servers
+* Identity management
+* Desktop
+* Graphics infrastructure
+* Virtualization
+* Supportability
+* Containers
+
+Review the [upstream listing](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html/9.4_release_notes/known-issues) for the complete details on these issues.
+
+!!! info "Deprecated Software"
+
+    Some Application Streams, which are part of the Rocky Linux 9.4 repositories, won't receive any further updates. These currently include Node.js 16 (retirement April 2024) and .NET 7 (retirement May 2024). Furthermore OpenJDK 11 will reach it's EoL for Rocky Linux 9 in October 2024. Please make sure to use supported versions (Node.js 18 or 20 modules, .NET 6 or 8 packages, OpenJDK 1.8.0, 17 or 21 packages) if further patches are desired.
+
+## Reporting bugs
+
+Please report any bugs you encounter to the [Rocky Linux Bug Tracker](https://bugs.rockylinux.org/). We also welcome you to join our community in any way you wish be it on our [Forums](https://forums.rockylinux.org), [Mattermost](https://chat.rockylinux.org), [IRC on Libera.Chat](irc://irc.liberachat/rockylinux), [Reddit](https://reddit.com/r/rockylinux), [Mailing Lists](https://lists.resf.org), or any other way you wish to participate!