geol: A CLI for Efficient Software EOL Management

❔ What I Built

geol is a command-line interface (CLI) built to efficiently manage, report, and survey software End-of-Life (EOL) statuses, supporting both interactive use and automated DevOps pipelines. The project began in December 2022 with contributions to endoflife.date and evolved through multiple hackathons, culminating in a Go-based rewrite of the eol tool.

Why This Matters

Managing software EOLs is critical for security and stability, yet often overlooked. Ignoring EOLs can lead to unpatched vulnerabilities and system failures, potentially costing organizations significant resources in remediation and downtime. Current manual processes are prone to error and scaling issues; automated tools are essential for maintaining a secure and up-to-date software stack.

Key Insights

• 200+ PRs to endoflife.date: The author contributed over 200 pull requests to enhance the endoflife.date database.
• Go Ecosystem Adoption: The project leverages the Go ecosystem for performance, security, and modern development practices.
• Integration with Security Tools: geol integrates with tools like trivy and osv.dev for vulnerability detection and reporting.

Working Example

// Example: Listing EOLs for a specific product
// Requires geol to be installed and configured
// geol list nginx

Practical Applications

• Large Enterprises: Automate EOL reporting across thousands of systems, reducing security risk and compliance issues.
• Pitfall: Relying on manual tracking of EOLs can lead to blind spots and delayed remediation, increasing vulnerability windows.

References:

• https://dev.to/adriens/managing-eols-w-geol-the-impossible-1-mux-demo-cnl
• https://github.com/opt-nc/geol
• https://endoflife.date/
• https://github.com/hugovk/norwegianblue