Cloud SDK 592.0.0 requires Java 25 for emulators, removes system Python from Docker

592.0.0 (2026-11-03)

• (Cloud Datastore Emulator) Removed support for running the Datastore emulator (gcloud beta emulators datastore start) in environment with Java versions prior to 25. Users can upgrade to Java 25 or above to continue using the latest Datastore emulator. Alternatively, users can use previous gcloud CLI versions to continue using the Datastore emulator with Java 21 support.
• (Cloud Firestore Emulator) Removed support for running the Firestore emulator (gcloud emulators firestore start) in environment with Java versions prior to 25. Users can upgrade to Java 25 or above to continue using the latest Firestore emulator. Alternatively, users can use previous gcloud CLI versions to continue using the previous Firestore emulator with Java 21 support.
• (Docker) Removed the system Python and C compiler from the Debian-based Docker images. gcloud, gsutil and bq now always run on the bundled Python, on both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. The removed packages differ by image:
  • :latest, :slim, :debian_component_based: python3, python3-dev, python3-pip, python3-crcmod and gcc.
  • :emulators: python3 and python3-crcmod.
  • :stable: python3-dev and python3-crcmod, on linux/arm64 only.
• (Docker) Setting CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=python3 (or CLOUDSDK_GSUTIL_PYTHON / CLOUDSDK_BQ_PYTHON) in these images now makes every gcloud, gsutil or bq call fail, because there is no python3 on PATH. Unset it to use the bundled Python.
• (Docker) If your workflow requires a system Python, install it on top of the image, for example with apt-get install python3. This does not change which Python gcloud uses. If you need to compile C extensions, also install build-essential python3-dev.