How to get regular stuff working: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:16, 29 March 2025

Alpine Linux is built around Musl libc and BusyBox. This makes it small and very resource efficient. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options and hence missing some extended functionality. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in GNU/Linux distributions.

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. The util-linux package is split into multiple subpackages, so it is possible to install only some of them individually. To have the complete util-linux package:

# apk add util-linux

The full featured file pager utility less can be installed from the less package.

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 shell:

# apk add bash bash-completion

Hardware Management

Install pciutils and usbutils for identifying and configuring PCI and USB hardware using the full featured version of lspci and lsusb commands respectively.

# apk add pciutils usbutils

The packages hwdata-pci and hwdata-usb are dependencies for the above utilities and they are installed automatically. These packages can be removed once the hardware configuration has been completed.

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

Subpackages and missing functionality

When a package is installed in Alpine Linux, no assumption is made on what features the user wants, so subpackages are not installed by default. The user might get a false impression of missing functionality. Alpine Linux package database page shows the list of available subpackages.

For eg: NetworkManager, the standard network configuration tool is split into 20+ subpackages based on features. If the user installs networkmanager package or network-manager-applet only the NetworkManager utility and the applet will get installed. To manage Wifi networks or to use commands like nmcli and nmtui the user is expected to add the required subpackages networkmanager-wifi, networkmanager-cli and networkmanager-tui respectively.

In other Linux distributions when NetworkManager is installed, all the above features plus bluetooth, adsl, wwan, vpn, l2tp, ppp etc are automatically installed along with their dependencies.

Development environment

Compiling in Alpine Linux may be more challenging because it uses musl-libc instead of glibc. The build-base meta package provides regular compiler stuff such as binutils, gcc, g++, make etc..

# apk add build-base

The alpine-sdk meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine Linux. 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 Linux.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Man pages ==
+Alpine Linux is built around [[Musl]] libc and [[BusyBox]]. This makes it small and very resource efficient. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options and hence missing some extended functionality. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in GNU/Linux distributions.
-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:{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|coreutils}}}}
-The appropos command may be installed with:
+== Util-linux ==
-    '''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:
+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]. The {{pkg|util-linux}} package is split into multiple subpackages, so it is possible to install only some of them individually. To have the complete {{pkg|util-linux}} package:{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|util-linux}}}}
-    $ '''apk add curl'''
+The full featured file pager utility <code>less</code> can be installed from the {{pkg|less}} package.
-    $ '''man curl'''
-    man: No entry for curl in the manual.
-    $ '''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>
+== Search utilities  ==
-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.
+Standard search tools <code>grep</code> and <code>find</code> can be installed by installing the packages {{pkg|grep}} and {{pkg|findutils}} as follows:{{Cmd|# apk add  {{pkg|grep}} {{pkg|findutils}} }}
-    '''apk add docs'''
+== 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}} shell: {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|bash}} {{pkg|bash-completion}}}}
-== Basic commands and shell hints ==
+== Hardware Management ==
-Alpine comes with busybox by default. And busybox is set up as an endpoint for numerous symlinks that substitute various utilities. Though busybox is not that bad, the busybox replacement commands may still be missing some functionality.
+Install {{pkg|pciutils}} and {{pkg|usbutils}} for identifying and configuring PCI and USB hardware using the full featured version of <code>lspci</code> and <code>lsusb</code> commands respectively. {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|pciutils}} {{pkg|usbutils}}}}
-To replace the symlinks to busybox, install...
+The packages {{pkg|hwdata-pci}} and {{pkg|hwdata-usb}} are dependencies for the above utilities and they are installed automatically. These packages can be removed once the hardware configuration has been completed.
-* Shell utilities (things like grep, [[awk]], ls are all busybox symlinks)
+== Disk Management ==
-   apk add util-linux pciutils usbutils coreutils binutils findutils grep
-* Bash
-It's also easy enough to have bash itself installed:
-   apk add bash bash-doc bash-completion
-and to possibly change the login shell with '''chsh'''.
-* Funny characters at the console
-Edit the file at {{Path|/etc/rc.conf}} and change line 92 to:
-  unicode="YES"
+Managing (removable) disks is much easier with udisks. {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|udisks2}}}}
+To see the mounted disks:{{Cmd|# udisksctl status}}
-== Disk Management ==
+== Network Management ==
-Managing (removable) disk is much easier with udisks or udisks2
+For network, you may want to install {{pkg|iproute2}}. {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|iproute2}}}}
-Installation
+== Subpackages and missing functionality  ==
-   apk add udisks2 udisks2-doc
+When a package is installed in Alpine Linux, no assumption is made on what features the user wants, so [[Alpine_Package_Keeper#Subpackages|subpackages]] are not installed by default. The user might get a false impression of missing functionality. Alpine Linux [https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org package database] page shows the list of available subpackages.
-To see the mounted disks
+For eg: [[NetworkManager]], the standard network configuration tool is split into 20+ subpackages based on features. If the user installs {{pkg|networkmanager}} package or {{pkg|network-manager-applet}} only the NetworkManager utility and the applet will get installed. To manage Wifi networks or to use commands like <Code>nmcli</Code> and <Code>nmtui</Code> the user is expected to add the required subpackages {{pkg|networkmanager-wifi}}, {{pkg|networkmanager-cli}} and {{pkg|networkmanager-tui}} respectively.
-   udisksctl status
+In other Linux distributions when NetworkManager is installed, all the above features plus bluetooth, adsl, wwan, vpn, l2tp, ppp etc are automatically installed along with their dependencies.
-== Compiling : a few notes and a reminder  ==
+== Development environment ==
-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.
+Compiling in Alpine Linux may be more challenging because it uses [https://musl.libc.org/ musl-libc] instead of glibc. The {{pkg|build-base}} meta package provides regular compiler stuff such as {{pkg|binutils}}, {{pkg|gcc}}, {{pkg|g++}}, {{pkg|make}} etc..
-Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff like gcc and cmake ... possible others
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|build-base}}}}
-==== (unvalidated) apk packages to install so one can start building software ====
+The {{pkg|alpine-sdk}} meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine Linux.  It includes {{pkg|abuild}}, {{pkg|build-base}}, and {{pkg|git}}.
-   apk add build-base gcc abuild binutils binutils-doc gcc-doc
-==== a complete install for cmake looks like ====
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|alpine-sdk}}}}
-   apk add cmake cmake-doc extra-cmake-modules extra-cmake-modules-doc
+To install CMake:
-==== ccache is also available ====
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|cmake}} {{pkg|extra-cmake-modules}}}}
-   apk add ccache ccache-doc
+{{pkg|ccache}} and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine Linux.
 [[Category:Installation]]
+[[category: System Administration]]