Alpine Linux Package Management

Because Alpine Linux is designed to run from RAM, package management involves two phases:

Installing / Upgrading / Deleting packages on a running system
Restoring a system to a previously configured state (e.g. after reboot), including all previously installed packages and locally modified configuration files.

apk is the tool used to install, upgrade, or delete software on a running sytem lbu is the tool used to capture the data necessary to restore a system to a previously configured state.

This page documents the apk tool - See the Alpine Local Backup page for the lbu tool.

The apk tool has the following applets:

add - Add new packages to the running system
del - Delete packages from the running system
fix - Attempt to repair or upgrade an installed package
update - Update the index of available packages
info - Prints information about installed or available packages
search - Search for packages or descriptions with wildcard patterns
upgrade - Upgrade the currently installed packages
cache - Maintenance operations for locally cached package repository
version - Compare version differences between installed and available packages
index - create a repository index from a list of packages
fetch - download (but not install) packages
audit - List changes to the file system from pristine package install state
verify - Verify a package signature

Quickstart Guide

Packages and Repositories

Software packages for Alpine Linux are digitally signed tar.gz archives containing the programs, configuration files, and dependency metadata. They have the extension "*.apk", and are often called "a-packs"

The packages are stored in one or more repositories A repository is simply a directory with a collection of *.apk files. The directory must include a special index file, named APKINDEX.tar.gz to be considered a repository.

The apk utility can install packages from multiple repositories. The list of repositories to check is stored in /etc/apk/repositories, one repository per line. If you booted from USB stick (/media/sda1) or CD-ROM (/media/cdrom), your repository file probably looks like this:

/media/sda1/apks/

In addition to local repositories, the apk utility uses busybox wget to fetch packages using http:, https: or ftp: protocols. The following is a valid repository file:

/media/sda1/apks
http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/main
https://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/extra
ftp://ftp.alpinelinux.org/edge/packages/main

Note: Currently there are no public https or ftp repositories. The protocols are available for local repositories

Update the Package list - apk update

Remote repositories change as packages are added and upgraded. To get the latest list of available packages, use the update command. The command downloads the APKINDEX.tar.gz from each repository and stores it in the local cache, typically /var/lib/apk or /etc/apk/cache.

Example:

apk update

fetch http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/main/APKINDEX.tar.gz
fetch http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/testing/APKINDEX.tar.gz
alpine 1.10.1 [/media/sda1/apks]
main v1.10.1-34-g977ff46 [http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/main]
testing v1.10.0-32-gbf6b6cb [http://dl-3.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.10/packages/testing]

Tip: If using remote repositories, it is a good idea to do an update just before doing an add or upgrade command. That way you know you are using the latest software available

Add a Package - apk add

Use add to install packages from a repository. Any necessary dependencies are also installed. If you have multiple repositories, the add command installs the newest package.

Examples:

apk add openssh apk add openssh openntp vim

Remove a Package -- apk del

Use the del command to remove a package (and dependencies that are no longer needed.)

apk del openssh apk del openssh openntp vim

Anything below this marker is old

Removing packages is done using:

% apk_delete openssh

To remove a package plus it's dependencies, use:

% apk_delete -R openssh

Even more dangerous is:

% apk_delete -r openssl

which will delete openssl plus all packages that depend on it.

Since removing packages (recursively) can seriously damage your system, it is best to use:

% apk_delete -n openssh

Which will not really remove the package, but just show what it would do.

Looking for packages?

To see the packages available in the repository, use:

% apk_fetch -l

Or you might use:

 % apk_fetch -l -v

Which will also show the version number of the available packages.

If the text scrolls by too fast you can use:

% apk_fetch -l | less

Info about your packages

There are several other commands that give more information about the packages installed on your system.

To see the contents of a certain package, use:

% apk_info -L openssh

To see the size of a package, use:

% apk_info -s openssh

To see all packages that depend on a package, eg zlib:

% apk_glob -r zlib

To find out to what package a certain file or directory belongs to, eg /etc/shorewall:

% apk_info -W /etc/shorewall

Upgrading alpine

The easiest way to upgrade alpine is to safe your settings to floppy or usb-key and reboot using a new CD. But there are several other possibilities a well:

Change the CD, but do not reboot
Update over network

Changing the CD, no reboot

First update the package list:

% apk_fetch -u

Check what packages have changed version numbers

% apk_version -v

% apk_version -v -l '<'

Will show you what packages needs to be updated

The first thing to check is whether the apk-tools need to be upgraded, if so, always do this first:

% apk_add -u apk-tools

Now it is time to upgrade the other packages:

% apk_version -q -l '<' | xargs apk_add -u

After your upgrade you might find some apk-new files in /etc,these are upgraded config files. A simple utility to go over these files is:

%  update-conf -l

Update over network

This is about the same as the previous entry. The key-difference is that we will change the install-source for apk. This can be done in two ways, on the command-line, using export or changing an /etc file:

% export APK_PATH=http://dev.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v1.4/apks/

or edit apk.conf, and add your requested resource.

% vi /etc/apk.conf

You can use sources from:

cdrom
http(s)
ftp
rsync (remember that rsync has to be installed before you can use this! (% apk_add rsync))

After you made this change, continue as the cd-rom upgrade with, etc

% apk_fetch -u