How to get regular stuff working: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 14:07, 8 November 2024

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 functionality when used to daily drive. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in other 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. To have the complete util-linux package:

# apk add util-linux

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:

# apk add bash bash-completion

Hardware Management

Install pciutils and usbutils for configuring PCI and USB hardware respectively. You can always remove these packages once the hardware is configured.

# apk add pciutils usbutils

The packages hwdata-pci and hwdata-usb are dependencies for the above utilities and they are installed automatically.

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

In Alpine Linux, binary packages are thinned out and split into subpackages to give you more control over what you install, which in turn keeps your environment as small and efficient as possible. When a package is installed in Alpine Linux, no assumption is made on what subpackage the user wants, so one may get the false impression of missing functionality.

For eg: the networkmanager package for NetworkManager, a popular network configuration tool is split into 20+ subpackages. If the user installs networkmanager package, usual commands like nmcli, nmtui will not be available. Similarly installing network-manager-applet will not allow you to manage Wifi networks. In Alpine Linux, the user is expected to identify and add the required subpackages e.g. networkmanager-cli, networkmanager-tui & networkmanager-wifi to get above functionalities. In other Linux distributions, above features plus unwanted features like bluetooth, adsl, wwan, vpn, l2tp, ppp etc are installed along with their dependencies.

Use package database or apk search <pkgname> to find subpackages related to a package.

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: @@
-Alpine comes with busybox by default. Busybox is set up as an endpoint for numerous symlinks that substitute various utilities. Since busybox tries to be a minimalistic package, the busybox commands may still be missing some functionality.
+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 functionality when used to [[Daily driver guide|daily drive]]. This page explains how to get the regular utilities working as found in other Linux distributions.
-To replace the busybox symlinks, you can install the relevant packages:
+== Core utilities ==
+{{Main|GNU core utilities}}
+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}}}}
-== Basic utilities ==
+== Util-linux  ==
-{{Main|GNU core utilities}}
+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]. To have the complete {{pkg|util-linux}} package:
-Very basic utilities ranging from cd, ls, lsblk, grep, are all busybox symlinks by default. To have the complete packages:
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|util-linux}}}}
-{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|util-linux}} {{pkg|coreutils}} {{pkg|grep}} {{pkg|findutils}} }}
+== Search utilities  ==
+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}} }}
 == Bash shell ==
 {{Main|Change default shell}}
-The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the busybox variant of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almquist_shell ash] shell. To install bash:
+The default shell used by Alpine Linux is the busybox variant of the [[BusyBox#Ash_shell|ash shell]]. To install {{pkg|bash}}:
 {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|bash}} {{pkg|bash-completion}}}}
 == Hardware Management ==
 Install {{pkg|pciutils}} and {{pkg|usbutils}} for configuring PCI and USB hardware respectively. You can always remove these packages once the hardware is configured.
@@ Line 36: / Line 42: @@
 {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|iproute2}}}}
+== Subpackages and missing functionality  ==
+In Alpine Linux, binary packages are thinned out and split into subpackages to give you more control over what you install, which in turn keeps your environment as small and efficient as possible. When a package is installed in Alpine Linux, no assumption is made on what subpackage the user wants, so one may get the false impression of missing functionality.
+For eg: the {{pkg|networkmanager}} package for [https://networkmanager.dev/ NetworkManager], a popular network configuration tool is split into 20+ subpackages. If the user installs {{pkg|networkmanager}} package, usual commands like <Code>nmcli</Code>, <Code>nmtui</Code> will not be available. Similarly installing {{pkg| network-manager-applet}} will not allow you to manage Wifi networks. In Alpine Linux, the user is expected to identify and add the required subpackages e.g. {{pkg|networkmanager-cli}}, {{pkg|networkmanager-tui}} & {{pkg|networkmanager-wifi}} to get above functionalities. In other Linux distributions, above features plus unwanted features like bluetooth, adsl, wwan, vpn, l2tp, ppp etc are installed along with their dependencies.
+Use [https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages package database] or  {{Codeline|<Code>apk search <pkgname></Code>}} to find  subpackages related to a package.
 == Development environment ==
-Compiling in Alpine may be more challenging because it uses [https://musl.libc.org/ musl-libc] instead of glibc.  Alpine offers the regular compiler stuff such as {{pkg|gcc}}.
+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..
-{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|gcc}}}}
+{{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|build-base}}}}
-The {{pkg|alpine-sdk}} meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine. It includes {{pkg|abuild}}, {{pkg|build-base}}, and {{pkg|git}}.
+The {{pkg|alpine-sdk}} meta package is provided to build packages for Alpine Linux.  It includes {{pkg|abuild}}, {{pkg|build-base}}, and {{pkg|git}}.
 {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|alpine-sdk}}}}
@@ Line 51: / Line 64: @@
 {{Cmd|# apk add {{pkg|cmake}} {{pkg|extra-cmake-modules}}}}
-{{pkg|ccache}} and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine.
+{{pkg|ccache}} and a lot other tools are also available in Alpine Linux.
-[https://wiki.musl-libc.org/functional-differences-from-glibc.html Functional differences between musl and glibc]
 [[Category:Installation]]
+[[category: System Administration]]