Aports tree
The aports tree is a repository which contains APKBUILD files for every Alpine package. An APKBUILD file contains a "recipe" instructing how a given software package should be built/compiled and packaged. These files are used when building Alpine from source.
The abuild script reads an APKBUILD and executes the steps needed to create a package. Once Alpine Linux is compiled, you will no longer see (or have use of) the APKBUILD. It is not included in the 'iso' or 'tar.gz'.
Directories
There are some directories placed in the aports tree. Each directory represent a single package repository. As of 2024-07-07, the aports tree contains the following directories:
main
main contains the basic set of packages for Alpine Linux.
community
community contain additional community maintained packages. For various reasons, these are not guaranteed to be supported beyond six months.
testing
All new packages go to testing first. Package will be moved to main or community if there is positive feedback or for other good reasons. Packages in testing are not included in stable builds, but are only built for edge.
Fetch latest APKBUILD files
While inside your build environment you need to install some needed packages and you need to fetch the APKBUILD's from the server (fetch the aports tree).
Note: You only need to do these 2 steps once! Next time you can skip this part.
apk add alpine-sdk
cd ~
git clone git://git.alpinelinux.org/aports
When the above is done, you might be interested in fetching the latest updates:
cd ~/aports
git pull