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

Now that we have learned the basics of Alpine Linux, we can start practicing how to build packages.

# Setting up a Docker container

The easiest way to start using Alpine Linux is through Docker. We can use Docker via the terminal widgets that are built into this course. We can run any command we could run in a usual Alpine Linux Docker container with these widgets. Let's try running `cat /etc/os-release` in the terminal below to see what Alpine Linux release version we're using!


Try running the command in the terminal below:

## Running Alpine Linux

The terminal widget above runs the Alpine Linux Docker container for us. If we wanted to start a Docker container locally on our computer later on, we could use the command below. This would start an `ash` shell in an Alpine Linux container:

docker run --interactive --tty --name educative-alpine alpine:3.15


Let's go over the individual parts of the command above:

* `run` means that the specified container image (`alpine:3.15`) should be started.

* `--interactive`  means that we want to run an interactive session in this container where we can enter commands in a shell.

* `--tty` opens a terminal in the container upon start. Since `--interactive` and `--tty` are usually used together, the short form `-it` is used to enable both of these options in the following lessons.

* `--name` sets the name of the container so we can interact with the container later on via its name.

* `alpine:3.15` This specifies the container image to run. In this case, we want to run Alpine Linux with the release version `3.15`.

After the program has been executed, we are greeted by a shell in the container. We can run commands on this shell:

Learn and practice how to install abuild, the package builder of Alpine Linux.

Introduction

Using abuild

Alpine's FHS

Creating Your First APKBUILD

Creating More Complex APKBUILDs

Hosting Our Own APK Repository

Additional APKBUILD Examples

Conclusion

Install abuild via Docker

Preface

Setting up a Docker container

Running Alpine Linux