Pion production in p+p interactions and Be+Be collisions at the CERN SPS energies

Evidence for the onset of deconfinement in central Pb+Pb collisions was reported by NA49 in fixed target measurements at beam momentum 30A GeV/c. This observation motivated the NA61/SHINE program started in 2009 at the CERN SPS, which, in particular, aims to study properties of the onset of deconfinement by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. This contribution presents spectra of charged pions produced in p+p interactions and $^7$Be+$^9$Be collisions at 20A-158A GeV/c beam momentum. The NA61/SHINE results are compared with the corresponding NA49 data from central Pb+Pb collisions at the same beam momenta per nucleon.