Comparison with other distros

2023-03-02T22:57:42Z

Vyryls: /* Updating package database */ add arch example

Even if Alpine is designed to run from RAM, it has some similarities in package management with other distributions. This page outlines those similarities and differences, to help new users use Alpine and understand the differences between Alpine and other distributions.

{{Note|The page was originally copied from: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070911124125/http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Converting_from_or_to_Debian http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Converting_from_or_to_Debian]}}

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= Package management =
Where Gentoo has portage and emerge; Debian has, among others, apt; Alpine uses apk-tools. This section compares how apk-tools is used, in comparison to apt and emerge.

== Updating package database ==
Gentoo will update the build-from-source scripts and the updating of the database takes much more time than updating the database for Debian or Alpine.

'''Alpine'''
apk update

'''Arch'''
pacman -Sy

'''Debian'''
apt update

'''Gentoo'''
emerge --sync

== Showing available updates ==
Show which packages have an update available:

'''Alpine'''
apk version -v
or:
apk version -v -l '<'

'''Gentoo'''
emerge --deep --update --pretend @world

'''Debian'''
apt list --upgradable

== Updating a particular package ==
'''Alpine'''
apk add -u package1 package2
or
apk upgrade package1 package2
'''Debian'''
apt install package1 package2
'''Gentoo'''
emerge --update package1 package2

== Installing packages ==
'''Alpine'''
apk add package1 package2

For source compile, see the [[Aports tree]] and the [[abuild]] tool.

'''Gentoo'''
emerge package1 package2
'''Debian'''
apt-get install package1 package2
Debian source compile:
apt-get build-dep package1
apt-get source package1
(optional: customize the build by modifying the debian/rules makefile)
(or set environmental variables like DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)
(note that this will make your bug reports invalid to the maintainer)
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b
dpkg -i generatedpackagename
Simplified source compile:
apt-get build-dep package1
apt-get -b source package1
(the packages are automatically generated using the -b switch above)

'''Note:''' This process can be used to backport packages from testing and unstable by simply adding their respective source repositories to sources.list, which is similar to adding ~x86 to package.keywords in Gentoo. This is explored further in the "Architectures and repositories" section below.

== Reinstalling particular packages ==
'''Alpine'''
apk del package1 package2 && apk add package1 package2
or:
apk fix package1 package2
'''Gentoo'''
emerge --oneshot package1 package2
'''Debian'''
apt-get install --reinstall package1 package2

Note: You ''rarely'' need to reinstall a package on Debian

== Searching the package database ==
'''Alpine'''

Alpine will only search package names.
apk search searchword

'''Gentoo'''

To search the package names and descriptions:
emerge --searchdesc searchword
'''Note:''' On Gentoo, it's actually much better to install and use the eix package to do a search. You use them like this:
eix searchword

'''Debian'''

apt-cache search searchword
Both emerge and apt-cache search support regular expressions.

To get the long package information on Debian (searching only in package names):
apt-cache search --full --names-only searchword

== Removing packages ==
'''Alpine'''

apk del package1 package2
''apk del'' will remove configuration files when the ''--purge'' flag is used. Make sure you have backups of your configuration files.

You will mostly like to take a quick look at the dependencies before you remove packages recursively.

To see dependencies for a package, use:
apk info -R package1 package2

To see if package is required by other packages (is a dependency for another packages), use:
apk info -r package1 package2

'''Gentoo'''

The correct way to remove packages on gentoo.
emerge --depclean package1 package2

In case you know what you're doing, you may skip dependency checks and potentiality leave your system in broken state.
emerge --unmerge package1 package2

'''Debian'''
apt-get remove package1 package2
or to remove along with all configuration files
apt-get remove --purge package1 package2

== Only downloading packages ==
This can be useful e.g. if you're on a dial-up connection and want to download everything first and install later.

'''Alpine'''
apk fetch package1 package2
'''Gentoo'''
emerge --fetchonly package1 package2
'''Debian'''
apt-get install --download-only package1 package2

== Cleaning up downloaded packages ==
Compressed packages that were downloaded for installation can easily consume gigabytes of storage space.

'''Alpine'''

Alpine will clean up packages automatically.

'''Gentoo'''

The following command will leave ''/var/cache/distfiles/'' folder intact, while deleting all children.

find /var/cache/distfiles/ -mindepth 1 -delete

To only remove outdated packages you will need to install the gentoolkit package and use eclean:
eclean distfiles

Cleaning temporary files from emerging packages:
rm -rf /var/tmp/portage/*

'''Debian'''
apt-get clean
Only remove outdated packages:
apt-get autoclean

==Reverse dependencies==

'''Alpine'''

apk-tools will take care of reverse dependencies.

'''Gentoo'''

Recent versions of portage include library tracking and preservation with the preserved-libs feature. Portage will notify you to run {{Cmd|emerge @preserved-rebuild}} to help rebuild binaries that might otherwise become broken.

'''Debian'''

Reverse dependencies are taken care of by dpkg.

= Runlevel & Initscripts =
Runlevels work pretty conventionally on Debian (see details: [http://archive.fo/ZdZIz systemd]{{dead link}}). On Alpine and Gentoo, they are a bit different.

== Directories and files ==
{{Obsolete|… concerning mainstream Debian, that now relies on systemd. It might continuously be valuable in reference to non-systemd [https://www.devuan.org/ Devuan], for example}}

In '''Debian''', runlevels are named conventionally (0-6 and S). They are represented by directories in /etc/ called rc*.d (when the default sysv-rc boot loader package is installed; file-rc can be installed instead, and then the relevant file is runlevel.conf).

* /etc/rc0.d
* /etc/rc1.d
* /etc/rcS.d
* /etc/rc2.d
* /etc/rc3.d
* /etc/rc4.d
* /etc/rc5.d
* /etc/rc6.d

In '''Gentoo''', runlevels have the same names, but these are mapped to more self explanatory ones (in /etc/inittab): "boot", "default", "nonetwork", with the option to add more. The directories that represent them are in
/etc/runlevels/:
* /etc/runlevels/boot
* /etc/runlevels/default
* /etc/runlevels/nonetwork

In '''Gentoo''', if a service is not explicitly started in a runlevel, it is stopped when switching to that runlevel! There is no explicit stopping of runlevels as in Debian (/etc/rc?.d/K??service).

In '''both Debian and Gentoo''', which things are started (and stopped) in which runlevels is controlled by links in the runlevel directories to scripts in /etc/init.d/, e.g.:
'''Gentoo'''
$ ls -l /etc/runlevels/boot/hostname
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Mar 25 2004 /etc/runlevels/boot/hostname -> /etc/init.d/hostname

'''Debian'''
$ ls -l rcS.d/S40hostname.sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 2004-11-07 00:19 rcS.d/S40hostname.sh -> ../init.d/hostname.sh

'''Alpine'''

In Alpine, runlevels work like they do in Gentoo:

* /etc/runlevels/boot
* /etc/runlevels/default
* /etc/runlevels/sysinit
* /etc/runlevels/nonetwork
* /etc/runlevels/shutdown

== Runlevel management ==
To manage which things to start in which runlevels, use the following commands:

'''Alpine'''

To see current status of services in runlevels, do:
rc-status
To add sshd to default runlevel, do:
rc-update add sshd default
To remove sshd from all runlevels do:
rc-update del sshd

'''Gentoo'''

rc-update
To add the cupsd to the default runlevel, do:
rc-update add cupsd default
To remove alsasound from the boot runlevel, do:
rc-update del alsasound boot
Also see this wiki page about [http://gentoo-wiki.com/Rc-update gentoo runlevel management with rc-update]

{{Obsolete|Debian now uses systemd.}}

'''Debian'''

update-rc.d
Configure cupsd to be started in runlevels 2, 3, 4, 5, and stopped in 0, 1, 6, with sequence code 20:
update-rc.d cupsd start 20 2 3 4 5 . stop 20 0 1 6 .
or simply:
update-rc.d cupsd defaults
Remove cupsd from all runlevels:
update-rc.d -f cupsd remove

= Config Files =

== /etc/portage/make.conf and use flags ==
While in Gentoo there's a large number of configuration files which control the behaviour of the package management system, there are comparatively fewer in Debian, as there is no need to dictate how to compile software which is downloaded and tweak/alter it. In Gentoo, the file /etc/portage/make.conf is used for much configuration; this includes ''USE'' flags, which influence which elements of packages are compiled, and which libraries to build support for - common USE flags (USE or -USE to specifically negate support) include 'gtk gnome' for Gnome users (and a corresponding -qt -kde -arts) and 'qt kde arts' for KDE users. A Gentoo user's complete set of use flags may look something like this:

'''USE="-kde -arts -qt xv truetype bluetooth crypt slang readline gpm berkdb mmx gdbm tcpd pam libwww ssl nls ethereal perl python esd gif imlib sdl oggvorbis mpeg gnome gtk X motif opengl avi png tiff nptl pcmcia nptl ldap eds"'''

== Architectures and repositories ==
'''Gentoo'''

Also in /etc/portage/make.conf is the '''ACCEPT_KEYWORDS''' setting, with (for an X86-based processor) two settings, '''x86''' for stabler packages, and '''~x86''' for bleeding edge packages. It is however not recommended to make this change in /etc/portage/make.conf. Rather configure this per-package in /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords. It's enough to put a line into that file naming the package (for example 'app-foo/bar'). That file might look like this:

app-crypt/gpg-agent
app-text/docbook-xsl-stylesheets
=app-text/docbook-xml-dtd-4.3-r1

The last line says, that ''only'' version 4.3-r1 should be unmasked. Older and newer versions will still be ignored.

'''Note for non-x86 users:'''
The keywords '''x86''' and '''~x86''' can of course be replaced by '''sparc''' and '''~sparc''' for example.

'''Debian'''

Setting this in Debian is slightly more complicated, and is accomplished by setting different 'repositories' in ''/etc/apt/sources.list'' - along with which 'tree' to use for packages; in Debian, these are '''stable''', '''testing''', and '''unstable'''. An ''/etc/apt/sources.list'' file for a debian testing user may look something like this:

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian testing main non-free contrib
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat testing main
deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

Alternatively, ''/etc/apt/sources.list'' can contain any number of repositories for any trees, and a default tree (this can be overridden using the -t switch on the command line) in ''/etc/apt/apt.conf'':

APT::Default-Release "testing";

Per-package settings go in ''/etc/apt/preferences'', somewhat like Gentoo's ''/etc/portage/package.keywords''.

== Network ==

'''Alpine'''

Alpine uses /etc/network/interfaces, similar to Debian. Alpine uses busybox's implementation by default.

''/etc/network/interfaces'':
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255

auto eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
# etc.

'''Gentoo'''

Gentoo uses ''netifrc''. This packages is also available in the edge community repository. (Use on Alpine at your own risk.)

''/etc/conf.d/net'':
config_eth0="192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0
192.168.2.100 netmask 255.255.255.0"
routes_eth0="default via 192.168.1.1"

Note that this has changed recently. For more information please refer to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4

'''Debian'''

''/etc/network/interfaces'':
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255

auto eth0:0
iface eth0:0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
# etc.

= Comparison chart/Rosetta Stone =

This chart shows how some standard things are done in Alpine compared to other distributions. See also the [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Rosetta Pacman Rosetta].

{| cellpadding="5" border="1" class="wikitable"
|-
! Action
! Alpine ([https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux_package_management apk])
! Arch Linux ([https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman pacman])
! Gentoo ([https://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=1 emerge])
! Debian/Ubuntu ([https://wiki.debian.org/AptCLI apt])
! Fedora/RHEL/SL/CentOS ([https://rpm-software-management.github.io/ DNF])
! VoidLinux ([https://docs.voidlinux.org/xbps/index.html?highlight=xb#xbps-package-manager XBPS])
|-
| Update package database
| {{Cmd| apk update}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -Sy}}
| {{Cmd| emerge --sync}}
| {{Cmd| apt update}}
| {{Cmd| dnf update}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-install -S}}
|-
| Showing available updates
| {{Cmd| apk version -l '<'}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -Qu}}
| {{Cmd| emerge --deep --update --pretend @world}}
| {{Cmd| apt upgrade --simulate}}
| {{Cmd| dnf list updates}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-install -n -u}}
|-
| Installing packages
| {{Cmd| apk add [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -S [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| emerge [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| apt install [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| dnf install [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-install [package name]}}
|-
| Update all installed packages
| {{Cmd| apk upgrade -U -a}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -Su}}
| {{Cmd| emerge --update --deep @world}}
| {{Cmd| apt upgrade}}
| {{Cmd| dnf update}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-install -u}}
|-
| Searching package database
| {{Cmd| apk search -v '[string]*'}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -Ss [string]}}
| {{Cmd| emerge --search [string]}}
| {{Cmd| apt search [string]}}
| {{Cmd| dnf search [string]}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-query -Rs [string]}}
|-
| Removing packages
| {{Cmd| apk del [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| pacman -R [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| emerge --depclean [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| apt remove [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| dnf remove [package name]}}
| {{Cmd| xbps-remove [package name]}}
|}

[[Category:Package Manager]]

Alpine Linux - User contributions [en]

Comparison with other distros