Gain insights into creating Alpine Linux packages. Delve into APKBUILDs, packaging basics, and repository management. Discover quality assurance and enhance your Alpine Linux and DevOps skills.

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In this course, you will learn how packaging software works in Alpine Linux, the most popular Docker Linux distribution.

You’ll first learn the basics: what is Alpine Linux and what are its advantages over other distributions, especially in a Docker environment? Next, you’ll cover the basics of packaging software: what are apk and APKBUILD, where should files be installed, and how can we create basic APKBUILDs and submit them for inclusion in Alpine Linux official repositories? You’ll also learn what makes an Alpine Linux package low or high quality. Finally, you’ll explore APKBUILDs for different programming languages and finish by creating your own private Alpine Linux repository with complex subpackages. 

By the end of the course, you will be able to create APKBUILDs which easily pass Alpine’s quality assurance. Overall, this course will increase your understanding of Alpine Linux and Linux in general and help you improve your DevOps skills.

Creating Alpine Linux Packages

## Preface

Packages have to discover their required packages on the computer they're built on. Since hardcoding the paths for the required headers, libraries, and so on doesn't scale across different distributions (which may use different paths or configurations of dependencies), there are different mechanisms for dynamically discovering these. It’s important to understand how these work since we'll interact with these systems for most packages written in statically compiled languages, like C or C++, that have dependencies.

The two most popular methods are `pkg-config` and `CMake` modules.

# Preface

Packages have to discover their required packages on the computer they're built on. Since hardcoding the paths for the required headers, libraries, and so on doesn't scale across different distributions (which may use different paths or configurations of dependencies), there are different mechanisms for dynamically discovering these. It’s important to understand how these work since we'll interact with these systems for most packages written in statically compiled languages, like C or C++, that have dependencies.

The two most popular methods are `pkg-config` and `CMake` modules.

Learn how to use pkg-config and CMake modules for discovering the dependencies of more complex packages.

Introduction

Using abuild

Alpine's FHS

Creating Your First APKBUILD

Creating More Complex APKBUILDs

Hosting Our Own APK Repository

Additional APKBUILD Examples

Conclusion

Digression: pkg-config, CMake, and Other Development Files

Preface