How to get regular stuff working: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 04:58, 20 July 2025

Alpine Linux is built around Musl libc and BusyBox. This makes it small and very resource efficient. The utilities in BusyBox tend to only implement standard options and lack GNU-specific extensions. This page explains how to get the utilities typically 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 xargs and find can be installed by via the findutils package as follows:

# apk add findutils

GNU Grep is also available as the grep package.

Shell management

The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the Busybox variant of the ash shell. This is a POSIX compliant shell. All popular shells are available in Alpine Linux and the default shell can be changed, if desired.

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 disks including 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] 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 tend to only implement standard options and lack GNU-specific extensions. This page explains how to get the utilities typically found in GNU/Linux distributions.
-Not all man-pages are in Alpine, those who are are not readily available after installing man and man-pages,
+== Core utilities ==
-you also need to install mdocml-pages to have man pages built at install time. Below is the quick and easy commandline:
+{{Main|GNU core utilities}}
-    apk add man man-pages mdocml-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}}}}
-== Operational hints ==
+== Util-linux ==
-==== Shell @ commandline ====
+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}}}}
-Alpine comes with busybox by default, busybox is and endpoint for numerous symlinks for various utilities. Though busybox is not that bad the commands are impaired in functionality.
+The full featured file pager utility <code>less</code> can be installed from the {{pkg|less}} package.
-* funny characters at the console
+== Search utilities  ==
-  not all characters are presented accurately, document here how to fix this
+Standard search tools <code>xargs</code> and <code>find</code> can be installed by via the {{pkg|findutils}} package as follows:{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|findutils}} }}
-* Bash
+GNU Grep is also available as the {{pkg|grep}} package.
-It is easy enough to have bash installed but this does not mean the symlinks to busybox are gone
-install bash like
+== Shell management ==
-   apk add bash bash-doc bash-completion
+{{Main|Shell management}}
+The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the Busybox variant of the [[Shell_management#Ash_shell|ash shell]]. This is a POSIX compliant shell. All popular shells are available in Alpine Linux and the [[Shell_management#Change_default_shell|default shell can be changed]], if desired.
+== Hardware management ==
-* shell utils ( things like grep, awk, ls, brctl  ... are all busybox symlinks )
+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}}}}
-   this should document how to have real utils instead of symlinks to busybox
+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.
-==== Disk Management ====
+== Disk management ==
+{{Main|File management}}
+Managing disks including removable disks is much easier with udisks.{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|udisks2}}}} To see the mounted disks:{{Cmd|# udisksctl status}}
-Disk management is soo much easier with udisks or udisks2
+== Network management ==
+{{Main|Configure Networking}}
+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.
-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 ==
+{{Main|Developer_Documentation}}
+Compiling in Alpine Linux may be more challenging because it uses [Musl] instead of glibc. The {{pkg|build-base}} meta package provides regular compiler stuff such as {{pkg|binutils}}, {{pkg|gcc}}, {{pkg|g++}}, {{pkg|make}} etc..
-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|build-base}}}}
-Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff like gcc and cmake ... possible others
+The {{pkg|alpine-sdk}} meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine Linux.  It includes {{pkg|abuild}}, {{pkg|build-base}}, and {{pkg|git}}.
-==== (unvalidated) apk packages to install so one can start building software ====
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|alpine-sdk}}}}
-   apk add build-base gcc abuild
-==== a complete install for cmake looks like ====
+To install CMake:
-   apk add cmake cmake-doc extra-cmake-modules extra-cmake-modules-doc
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|cmake}} {{pkg|extra-cmake-modules}}}}
-==== ccache is also available ====
+{{pkg|ccache}} and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine Linux.
-   apk add ccache ccache-doc
+[[Category:Installation]]
+[[category: System Administration]]