Repositories
#1
Sat, 2015-10-10 08:46
emninger
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- Offline
- 2 years 5 months ago
- 2015-10-10
I'm totally new to Alpine Linux (used to Slackware and Debian, which i left for the systemd hassle) so sorry if this is a dumb question:
In the packages website i saw there are different repositories (main, testing, comunity, all). In /etc/apk/repositories i did not see any specification. How one would/should configure that?
TIA
Bumping for interest -- I am sorry that I cannot answer your question (I too am new to alpine)
But can you talk a little about your dislike for systemd?
I've been reading about violations of unix principals as well as security concerns but I don't know too much about it.
Also doesn't slackware not use systemd?
I wouldn|t like to violate codes, rules and principles of this forum before really starting, and i know systemd is really a sensiible issue. In any case. to answer your second question first:
Slackware does not use systemd (at least up to now. They rather use a bsd-ish kind of init). Coming from debian there are several things you have to learn though ...
I am frustrated because systemd created to me (|m a user!) lots of problems for networking printers and broke many scripts i created on my own to connect to printers, scanners over lan etc).
I got interested in alpine because seems very leightweight and fast to me. My interest is to setup a light desktop (in crunchbang style - but with fluxbox in place of openbox) on an old laptop and on a netbook (Dell). There are some alternatives like Voidlinux e.g i am playing around too. But in this moment Alpine would be my favorite eventhough i am aware i will have to learn a lot.
Cheers.
I think you can move from the "stable" type release to the ?sid? equivalent (in debian speak) via this how to: this how to.
Welcome to Alpine, I'm new too. Too bad there's no "Introduce yourself" thread. Forums here are rather sedate, action seems to happen more on the wiki.
By default, the 'main' repository is enabled in /etc/apk/repositories. Others are present, but disabled, commented out. I leave it that way unless I find I need something in one of the disabled repositories, e.g., xpdf, which is currently in 'testing'. I generally use a version control system (git, in my case, but even something as primitive, by today's standards, as RCS would do just fine; mercurial would also be fine). Before editing any system file, I check in the original. In this case, you would edit /etc/apk/repositories to enable the repository you need and then run 'apk update', so apk sees the packages in the repository you just added. After adding the package, I usually revert the repositories file back to its original state, because I don't want to be installing packages from 'testing' inadvertantly.
On the alpinelinux.org page, there is a link, 'Packages'. Get familiar with this -- it's very, very useful. It is, in effect, a pointy-clicky was of composing package database queries. You can search just the packages, but via a link on that page, you can also search for contents. So if you know you need a certain file but don't know what package it's in, this tool lets you find it.
Here is a bit more information about how the repositories and release work:
The current numbered release is v3.2. We'll call that the current repository.
The current repository has one "sub" repository called main, and is noted as 3.2/main
The Alpine packages are all in there, for apk to pull onto your insallation at your and my convenience
There is another repository called edge.
This one has three "sub" repositories called main, community, and testing, giving us edge/main, edge/testing and edge/commuity.
When a versioned Alpine is release, the packages used for that release come from edge/main, and at that point, all the Alpine Linux Squirrels get busy in edge/main bumping versions of software, applying security fixes, bug fixes and the likes. They also keep a keen eye on all the packages in the current repository (3.2/main, remember?) for misbehaviours and discipline them as required.
New packages are put into edge/testing, where only The Brave Ones adventure and install stuff onto their machines that could break and any time. Once happy, The Brave Ones move packages from edge/testing to edge/main
At the next release, generally every six months (and at the time of writing v3.3) edge/main becomes 3.3/main and the Squirrels and The Brave Ones start all over again.
Lastly there is edge/community. This is new. It will split the current repository into two, so you'll have 3.3/main and 3.3/community.
In 3.3/main go the lucky packages that have been granted two years of support, which means that these packages will be eyeballed under a microscope for two years and "instafixed" [tm] if they so much as blink and in community goes everything else.
hope this helps