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

Alpine Linux is one of the most popular Linux distributions available, especially in containerization. It has over a billion downloads on Docker Hub, and many existing Docker images are based on the original Alpine images. Many popular projects also offer Alpine Linux flavors of their image, like [Python](https://hub.docker.com/_/python), [PostgreSQL](https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres), and [Redis](https://hub.docker.com/_/redis).


## Alpine Linux components

Alpine Linux consists of some often-used components, which are explained below.

### The `apk` component
The #key# `apk`:Alpine Package Keeper #key# component (not to be confused with the `.apk` package format of Android apps) is the package manager of Alpine Linux. It's used for all basic package operations, like adding, removing, and upgrading packages. Like the rest of Alpine Linux, `apk` is designed to be as fast as possible while being easy to use. As such, updating the repositories and installing a small package only takes a few seconds compared to a minute or longer with alternative package managers like `apt`. Common `apk` commands are:

apk add example # Install the package "example"
apk del example # Remove the package "example"
apk update # Update repositories
apk upgrade # Upgrade packages

### The `abuild` component

The `abuild` component is used to build `.apk` packages that can be installed with `apk`. We will use it in future lessons to build our packages.

### The `musl` libc

A significant distinction of Alpine Linux compared to traditional distributions is that it uses `musl` libc instead of `glibc`, which is used by other distributions, like Debian or Fedora. This has some advantages:

* With `musl`, proper statically linked versions of programs can be created that are entirely self-contained. This allows binaries to be compiled on Alpine Linux and then run on (almost) any other Linux distribution. This isn't possible with `glibc`.
* The `musl` strives to be `POSIX` compliant and is a generally a more straightforward implementation of the `POSIX` C spec than `glibc`. This aids in debugging when `musl` implementation is easier to understand.

However, it also comes with some drawbacks:


* Programs compiled against `glibc` can't be easily executed in Alpine Linux. This means that most proprietary software doesn't run on Alpine Linux.
* Some open-source projects use C extensions specific to `glibc`. These projects don’t compile and run on `musl`.

# Preface

Alpine Linux is one of the most popular Linux distributions available, especially in containerization. It has over a billion downloads on Docker Hub, and many existing Docker images are based on the original Alpine images. Many popular projects also offer Alpine Linux flavors of their image, like [Python](https://hub.docker.com/_/python), [PostgreSQL](https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres), and [Redis](https://hub.docker.com/_/redis).


# Alpine Linux components

Alpine Linux consists of some often-used components, which are explained below.

## The `apk` component
The #key# `apk`:Alpine Package Keeper #key# component (not to be confused with the `.apk` package format of Android apps) is the package manager of Alpine Linux. It's used for all basic package operations, like adding, removing, and upgrading packages. Like the rest of Alpine Linux, `apk` is designed to be as fast as possible while being easy to use. As such, updating the repositories and installing a small package only takes a few seconds compared to a minute or longer with alternative package managers like `apt`. Common `apk` commands are:

## The `abuild` component

The `abuild` component is used to build `.apk` packages that can be installed with `apk`. We will use it in future lessons to build our packages.

## The `musl` libc

A significant distinction of Alpine Linux compared to traditional distributions is that it uses `musl` libc instead of `glibc`, which is used by other distributions, like Debian or Fedora. This has some advantages:

* With `musl`, proper statically linked versions of programs can be created that are entirely self-contained. This allows binaries to be compiled on Alpine Linux and then run on (almost) any other Linux distribution. This isn't possible with `glibc`.
* The `musl` strives to be `POSIX` compliant and is a generally a more straightforward implementation of the `POSIX` C spec than `glibc`. This aids in debugging when `musl` implementation is easier to understand.

However, it also comes with some drawbacks:


Explore the basics of Alpine Linux and discover its often-used components.

Introduction

Using abuild

Alpine's FHS

Creating Your First APKBUILD

Creating More Complex APKBUILDs

Hosting Our Own APK Repository

Additional APKBUILD Examples

Conclusion

What is Alpine Linux?

Preface

Alpine Linux components

The `apk` component

The `abuild` component

The `musl` libc