Include:Upgrading to Edge

An upgrade of Alpine Linux from a stable version to the rolling development version, edge can be done in a few simple steps. (These instructions assume that Alpine Linux is installed to a hard drive, rather than run-from-RAM.)

To begin, you need to update your /etc/apk/repositories file. Here are some shortcuts for doing so:

• Launch

  setup-apkrepos

  Enter e to edit /etc/apk/repositories. Change the version number (such as v2.5) to edge.
• Or, edit the file in place:

  sed -i -e 's/v2\.5/edge/g' /etc/apk/repositories

The result should look like this:

Contents of /etc/apk/repositories

... http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main

Next, upgrade all your packages in one shot:

apk upgrade --update-cache --available

The --available switch is used to force all packages to be upgraded, even if they have the same version numbers. Sometimes changes in uClibc have required doing this.

Note: You will need to restart any services that have been upgraded to begin using the upgraded versions. If the kernel is upgraded, you will need to reboot to begin using the upgraded version:

sync reboot

To check your current release:

cat /etc/alpine-release

You will see the build date attached to the release.