Alpine Linux:Glossary

The Glossary is an extensive list of terms and Alpine Linux features with definitions and considerable explanations. A great place for reference and general browsing.

A

abuild

The tool to build packages from sources using APKBUILD is abuild.

ACF

Alpine Linux Configuration Framework is an mvc-style application for configuring an Alpine Linux device. The primary focus is for a web interface - ACF's main goal is to be a light-weight MVC "webmin".

apk

Alpine Linux Package Keeper - A) The package manager for Alpine, used to install, query and remove software packages on a running Alpine system. Also the suffix of the binary packages, even if those basically are gzipped tar files.

APKBUILD

A build recipe that is used to build Alpine packages for apk. It holds information of package name, version, license, dependencies, sources etc and how to compile the sources and package the binaries.

apkovl

Apkovl is a file storing configuration files that have changed from the default ones. It is used when running from ram. The contents are overlaid on top of the contents of the apks that are loaded on boot. The filename is <hostname>.apkovl.tar.gz and is stored on removable media whose path is defined in /etc/lbu/lbu.conf.

B

Busybox

Busybox is a utility that combines many common Linux tools into a single program. Most of the command-line tools in the core Alpine distribution are part of Busybox.

bash

bash is a command-line interpreter or "shell" that provides a command line user interface.

C

cgit

cgit provides easy access to all git repositories hosted on the Alpine infrastructure.

community

The so-called community repository contains software. Packages in community are considered stable, but aren't considered as vital as those in the main repository.

E

edge

edge is the name of the development tree of Alpine Linux.

F

Flatpak

Flatpak is a technology for distributing desktop applications on GNU/Linux.

G

git

The distributed version control system that Alpine uses. (category: Git)

I

IRC

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a protocol for Internet text messaging in real-time. Alpine-specific details can be found here.

L

lbu

Local Backup Utility. A tool to make backups of user configuration. Since the system typically runs from RAM, lbu is used to save the state of the system to a file that is restored to bring the system back to its previous state.

LEAF

Linux Embedded Appliance Framework. Alpine Linux started as a fork of the LEAF project. A secure, feature-rich, customizable embedded Linux network appliance for use in a variety of network topologies. Although it can be used in other ways; it's primarily used as a Internet gateway, router, firewall, and wireless access point.

M

main

The so-called main repository contains software. Those packages are mature.

MVC

The MVC design pattern is used in ACF to separate presentation information from control logic. By MVC we mean:

• Model - code that reads / writes a config file, starts / stops daemons, or does other work modifying the router.
• View - code that formats data for output
• Controller - code that glues the two together

mkinitfs

Tool to generate the initramfs image for the kernel.

modloop

Loopback cramfs image where kernel modules are stored for tmpfs installs.

musl

musl is a C standard library implementation for GNU/Linux. Musl libc is not ABI compatible with uClibc.

N

NTP

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems. Alpine provides setup-ntp for setting up.
(What's the easiest way to make Busybox keep correct time? 2014)

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O

OpenRC

OpenRC is a dependency based universal init system that works with the system provided init program.

S

setup-*

Alpine contains a lot of scripts to configure a system. All those scripts start with setup-*. The most important one is setup-alpine.
(find / -name setup* -print | sort)

T

testing

The so-called testing repository contains software packages which are new/untested/experimental.

tmpfs

tmpfs is a filesystem that exists in (virtual) memory only, like a RAM disk.

U

uClibc

uClibc (aka µClibc/pronounced yew-see-lib-see) is a C library for developing embedded Linux systems. It is much smaller than the GNU C Library, but nearly all applications supported by glibc also work perfectly with uClibc.

V

vServer

Linux-VServer provides virtualization for GNU/Linux systems by kernel level isolation. This way it's possible to run multiple virtual units at once.

X

Xfce

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment that is available in the Alpine Linux repositories.