How to get regular stuff working: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:50, 25 October 2024

To minimize footprint, Alpine Linux comes with BusyBox by default. BusyBox is set up as an endpoint for numerous symlinks that substitute various utilities. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options and hence missing some functionality. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in other Linux distributions. Installing the relevant packages, replaces BusyBox symlinks.

Core utilities

Most of the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities commonly grouped under Core Utilities are provided by BusyBox. To replace it with original coreutils package:

# apk add coreutils

Util-linux

A set of approximately 100 basic Linux system utilities not included in GNU Core Utilities, such as mount, cfdisk, more, lsblk and kill are maintained under Util-linux. To have the complete util-linux package:

# apk add util-linux

Search utilities

Standard search tools grep and find can be installed by installing the packages grep and findutils as follows:

# apk add grep findutils

Bash shell

The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the busybox variant of the ash shell. To install bash:

# apk add bash bash-completion

Hardware Management

Install pciutils and usbutils for configuring PCI and USB hardware respectively. You can always remove these packages once the hardware is configured.

# apk add pciutils usbutils

The packages hwdata-pci and hwdata-usb are dependencies for the above utilities and they are installed automatically.

Disk Management

Managing (removable) disks is much easier with udisks.

# apk add udisks2

To see the mounted disks:

# udisksctl status

Network Management

For network, you may want to install iproute2.

# apk add iproute2

Development environment

Compiling in Alpine may be more challenging because it uses musl-libc instead of glibc. Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff such as gcc.

# apk add gcc

The alpine-sdk meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine. It includes abuild, build-base, and git.

# apk add alpine-sdk

To install CMake:

# apk add cmake extra-cmake-modules

ccache and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine.

Functional differences between musl and glibc

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Man pages ==
+To minimize footprint, Alpine Linux comes with [[BusyBox]] by default. [[BusyBox]] is set up as an endpoint for numerous symlinks that substitute various utilities. The utilities in [[BusyBox]] generally have fewer options and hence missing some functionality. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in other Linux distributions. Installing the relevant packages, replaces [[BusyBox]] symlinks.
-A "man" command and basic manual pages can be installed with:
+== Core utilities ==
+{{Main|GNU core utilities}}
-    '''apk add mandoc man-pages'''
+Most of the basic file, shell and text manipulation utilities commonly grouped under [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GNU_Core_Utilities_commands Core Utilities] are provided by [[BusyBox]]. To replace it with original {{pkg|coreutils}} package:
-The appropos command may be installed with:
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|coreutils}}}}
-    '''apk add mandoc-apropos '''
-The '''man-pages''' package only provides the system's ''core'' manual pages. Other packages come with their separate '''*-doc''' sub-packages that ship their documentation (which may include man pages). This is the ''Alpine Way'' to allow for the small default footprint. For example:
+== Util-linux  ==
+A set of approximately 100 basic Linux system utilities not included in GNU Core Utilities, such as <code>mount</code>, <code>cfdisk</code>, <code>more</code>, <code>lsblk</code> and <code>kill</code> are maintained under [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Util-linux Util-linux]. To have the complete {{pkg|util-linux}} package:
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|util-linux}}}}
-    $ '''apk add curl'''
+== Search utilities  ==
-    $ '''man curl'''
+Standard search tools <code>grep</code> and <code>find</code> can be installed by installing the packages {{pkg|grep}} and {{pkg|findutils}} as follows:
-    man: No entry for curl in the manual.
+{{Cmd|# apk add  {{pkg|grep}} {{pkg|findutils}} }}
-    $ '''apropos curl | wc -l'''
-    <span style="color: green;">''After adding curl, there are no man pages''</span>
-    $ '''apk add curl-doc'''
-    (1/1) Installing curl-doc (7.52.1-r2)
-    Executing mandoc-apropos-1.13.3-r6.trigger
-    OK: 60 MiB in 31 packages
-    $ '''apropos curl | wc -l'''
-<span style="color: green;">''Now, with curl-doc installed, there's a boatload of pages!''</span>
+== Bash shell ==
+{{Main|Change default shell}}
+The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the busybox variant of the [[BusyBox#Ash_shell|ash shell]]. To install {{pkg|bash}}:
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|bash}} {{pkg|bash-completion}}}}
-If you would like all the documentation packages pertaining to your installed packages to be pulled in automatically, you may install the  <code>docs</code> meta package.
+== Hardware Management ==
+Install {{pkg|pciutils}} and {{pkg|usbutils}} for configuring PCI and USB hardware respectively. You can always remove these packages once the hardware is configured.
-== Operational hints ==
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|pciutils}} {{pkg|usbutils}}}}
-==== Shell @ commandline ====
+The packages {{pkg|hwdata-pci}} and {{pkg|hwdata-usb}} are dependencies for the above utilities and they are installed automatically.
-Alpine comes with busybox by default.  Busybox is an endpoint for numerous symlinks for various utilities. Though busybox is not that bad, the commands are impaired in functionality.
+== Disk Management ==
-* Funny characters at the console
+Managing (removable) disks is much easier with udisks.
-Edit the file at {{Path|/etc/rc.conf}} and change line 92 to:
-  unicode="YES"
-* Bash
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|udisks2}}}}
-It is easy enough to have bash installed, but this does not mean the symlinks to busybox are gone.
-Install bash with:
+To see the mounted disks:
-   apk add bash bash-doc bash-completion
-* Shell utilities (things like grep, [[awk]], ls are all busybox symlinks)
+{{Cmd|# udisksctl status}}
-   apk add util-linux pciutils usbutils coreutils binutils findutils grep
-* /etc/{shadow,group} manipulation requires
+== Network Management ==
-   apk add shadow
+For network, you may want to install {{pkg|iproute2}}.
-==== Disk Management ====
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|iproute2}}}}
-Disk management is so much easier with udisks or udisks2
+== Development environment ==
-Installation
+Compiling in Alpine may be more challenging because it uses [https://musl.libc.org/ musl-libc] instead of glibc.  Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff such as {{pkg|gcc}}.
-   apk add udisks2 udisks2-doc
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|gcc}}}}
-See the mounted disks
+The {{pkg|alpine-sdk}} meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine. It includes {{pkg|abuild}}, {{pkg|build-base}}, and {{pkg|git}}.
-   udisksctl status
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|alpine-sdk}}}}
-== Compiling : a few notes and a reminder  ==
+To install CMake:
-Compiling in Alpine may be more challenging because it uses [http://www.musl-libc.org/ musl-libc] instead of glibc. Please review [http://wiki.musl-libc.org/wiki/Functional_differences_from_glibc 'The functional differences with glibc' ] if you think of porting packages or just for the sake of knowing, of course.
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|cmake}} {{pkg|extra-cmake-modules}}}}
-Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff like gcc and cmake ... possible others
+{{pkg|ccache}} and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine.
-==== (unvalidated) apk packages to install so one can start building software ====
-   apk add build-base gcc abuild binutils binutils-doc gcc-doc
-==== a complete install for cmake looks like ====
-   apk add cmake cmake-doc extra-cmake-modules extra-cmake-modules-doc
-==== ccache is also available ====
-   apk add ccache ccache-doc
+[https://wiki.musl-libc.org/functional-differences-from-glibc.html Functional differences between musl and glibc]
 [[Category:Installation]]