Release Notes for Alpine 3.13.0

From Alpine Linux

aports

musl upgraded to 1.2

musl has been upgraded to 1.2. This release changes the definition of time_t on 32-bit systems. See the musl time64 release notes for more details. All x86, armv7 and armhf packages have been rebuilt for this change. For users of these architectures, all self-compiled packages must be manually rebuilt after upgrading.

Deprecation of berkeley db

Oracle has changed the license of bdb to AGPL, making it unsuitable to link it to packages with GPL-incompatible licenses. Since the old version is no longer maintained, bdb has been removed from Alpine Linux and alternatives substituted.

For postfix, this means using lmdb and dropping support for hash and btree databases. Before upgrading, update all references of these types in /etc/postfix/main.cf to lmdb.

Switching from busybox ifupdown to ifupdown-ng

Alpine Linux has switched the default ifupdown implementation from busybox to ifupdown-ng. This version is compatible with debian ifupdown and busybox ifupdown, but please read the readme and the admin guide.

ifupdown-ng has native vlan support, so the vlan package is no longer required and can be uninstalled. The bridge and bond packages are still required.

GCC 10

GCC has been updated to version 10. GCC 10 sets the -fno-common option by default. All Alpine Linux packages have been fixed, but users compiling other packages on Alpine may need to fix their code. For more information, see the GCC 10 porting guide.

PHP 8.0

PHP 8.0 with a common set of extensions is now available as php8. PHP 7.4 (php7) remains the default.

busybox

Removed applets

These applets have been removed due to poor feature compatibility and/or highly infrequent use:

  • hdparm: Use hdparm
  • conspy: None
  • fdformat: Use util-linux
  • readprofile: Use util-linux
  • lspci: Use pciutils
  • sendmail: Use ssmtp, opensmtpd, dma, exim, nullmailer, or postfix
  • smemcap: None
  • dumpleases: None

For conspy and smemcap, no alternative packages are currently available, but they can be packaged on request. Please file an issue at Alpine GitLab if you require these programs.

Changes

The following applets now support long options:

  • gzip
  • install
  • ipcalc

apk-tools

Man page

apk-tools now has an official man-page: apk-tools-docs. If the docs package is installed, man pages will automatically be installed and updated for all installed packages.