User:Ncopa

draft:

About

Alpine Linux is an x86 Linux distribution suitable for firewalls, routers, VPN gateways, lightweight servers (http, sql, mail), resque livecd or other embedded devices.

Lightweight

Alpine is based on and busybox (and are thus not a GNU/Linux distro).

The base system, excluding the kernel, is less than 2MB. That includes:

• the C library runtime, uclibc
• standard tools from busybox (cp, ls, mv, wget, iproute, nc etc)
• package manager, apk-tools
• openrc init system

Proactive security

The default kernel is patched with the grsecurity patches and provides features like:

• Address Space Randomization Layout
• Memeory protection

Alpine Linux is a run-from RAM linux distribution. Its original target was small appliances like routers, VPN gateways, or embedded x86 devices. However, it supports hosting other Linux guest OSes under VServer control, making it an attractive hosting solution as well.

It can boot from a 1GB USB stick, CDrom, or hard drive. Packages compiled against uClibc are pulled into RAM for execution. All packages are compiled with grsecurity patches and SSP to provide a secure runtime environment. The lbu backup system stores all changes to /etc (and custom changes) to the boot media, making system disaster recovery brain-dead simple.

APKBUILD Reference

APKBUILDs are scripts to build alpine packages using the abuild tool.

Variables

depends

Runtime dependencies that are not shared-object dependencies.

depends_dev

Runtime dependencies for -dev subpackage.

install

pre/post install/deinstall/remove scripts

license

License(s) for the package.

makedepends

Build time dependencies

pkgdesc

Short package description.

pkggroups

Groups to be created during buildtime

pkgname

The name of the package. All letters should be lowercase. Lua libraries/modules should be prefixed with lua- (for example lua-posix), perl modules with perl- (for example perl-xml-parser), php modules with php- and python modules with py--.

pkgusers

Users to be created during buildtime

pkgver

The package version.

replaces

package(s) that this package replaces. Useful when files moves

source

URL(s) to sources and patches

subpackages

Subpackages built from this APKBUILD.

url

The homepage for the package. This is to help users find upstream developer, documentation etc.

from one package to another.