Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution based on musl and BusyBox, designed for security, simplicity, and resource efficiency.[3][4][5][6][7] It used a hardened kernel until release 3.8 and compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection.[8]

Alpine Linux
DeveloperAlpine Linux development team
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateActive
Source modelOpen source
Initial releaseAugust 2005 (2005-08)[1]
Latest release3.12.0 / 29 May 2020 (2020-05-29)[2]
Repository
Marketing targetDevelopers, power users
Available inMultilingual
Package managerAPK
Platformsx86, x86-64, ARMhf, AArch64, ppc64le, s390x
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
UserlandBusyBox (GNU Core Utilities are optional)
Default user interfaceCommand-line interface
Official websitealpinelinux.org

Because of its small size, it is commonly used in containers providing quick boot-up times.[9]

The postmarketOS project, which is designed to run on mobile devices, is based on Alpine Linux.

History

Originally, Alpine Linux began as a fork of the LEAF Project.[1] The members of LEAF wanted to continue making a Linux distribution that could fit on a single floppy disk, whereas the Alpine Linux wished to include some more heavyweight packages such as Squid and Samba, as well as additional security features and a newer kernel.

Version history
Version Release date[10][11] End-of-life date[12] Kernel release
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0 2010-08-16 2012-04-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1 2010-11-01 2012-11-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2 2011-05-03 2013-05-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3 2011-11-01 2013-11-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.4 2012-05-02 2014-05-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.5 2012-11-07 2014-11-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.6 2013-05-17 2015-05-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.7 2013-11-08 2015-11-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.0 2014-06-04 2016-05-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1 2014-12-10 2016-11-01 N/A
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.2 2015-05-26 2017-05-01 3.18.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.3 2016-01-06 2017-11-01 4.1.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.4 2016-05-31 2018-05-01 4.4.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.5 2016-12-22 2018-11-01 4.4.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.6 2017-05-24 2019-05-01 4.9.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.7 2017-11-30 2019-11-01 4.9.xx
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.8 2018-06-26 2020-05-01 4.14.xx
Older version, yet still maintained: 3.9 2019-01-29 2021-01-01 4.19.xx
Older version, yet still maintained: 3.10 2019-06-19 2021-05-01 4.19.xx
Older version, yet still maintained: 3.11 2019-12-19 2021-11-01 5.4.xx
Current stable version: 3.12 2020-05-29 2022-05-01 5.4.xx
Latest preview version of a future release: edge rolling N/A N/A
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Features
  • Alpine uses its own package-management system, apk-tools,[13] which originally was a collection of shell scripts but was later rewritten in C. Alpine currently contains most commonly used packages such as GNOME, Xfce, Firefox, and others.
  • Alpine Linux can be installed as a run-from-RAM operating system. The LBU (Alpine Local Backup)[14] tool optionally allows all configuration files to be backed up to an APK overlay file (usually shortened to apkovl), a tar.gz file that by default stores a copy of all changed files in /etc (with the option to add more directories). This allows Alpine to work reliably in demanding embedded environments or to (temporarily) survive partial disk failures as sometimes experienced in public cloud environments.
  • A hardened kernel was included in the default distribution for up to and including Alpine 3.7, which aids in reducing the impact of exploits and vulnerabilities. All packages are also compiled with stack-smashing protection to help mitigate the effects of userland buffer overflows.
  • Alpine Linux, by default, includes patches that allow using efficient meshed VPNs using the DMVPN standard.
  • Alpine Linux has reliably had excellent support of Xen hypervisors in up-to-date versions, which avoids issues as experienced with Enterprise Distributions. (The standard Linux hypervisor KVM, is also available.)
  • Alpine Linux allows very small Linux containers, around 8 MB in size, while a minimal installation to disk might be around 130 MB.[15]
  • Alpine Configuration Framework (ACF): While optional, ACF is an application for configuring an Alpine Linux machine, with goals similar to Debian's debconf. It is a standard framework based on simple Lua scripts.[16]
  • Alpine Linux previously used uClibc as its C standard library instead of the traditional GNU C Library (glibc) most commonly used. Although it is more lightweight, it does have the significant drawback of being binary incompatible with glibc. Thus, all software must be compiled for use with uClibc to work properly. As of April 9, 2014,[17] Alpine Linux switched to musl, which is partially binary compatible with glibc.[18]
  • The lightweight OpenRC is the init system currently used by Alpine Linux.[19] Unlike many distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Arch Linux and CentOS, Alpine does not use systemd.
gollark: Which have battery lives of years, which is obviously quite useful.
gollark: As you're in a sensible country unlike Solar, you could just get a cheap nonsmartwatch.
gollark: Their nests violate planning permission and they don't pay the fines.
gollark: In my country, yes.
gollark: Although to be honest a Pi0 may be underpowered for general use... so maybe a compute module or SOPine?

References
  1. "linux.leaf.devel - Re: [leaf-devel] 2.6.x kernel support? - msg#00039 - Recent Discussion OSDir.com". Archived from the original on 14 May 2016.
  2. "Alpine Linux 3.12.0 Released". www.alpinelinux.org. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  3. Review: Alpine Linux is made for Docker | InfoWorld
  4. Alpine Linux 2 review | LinuxBSDos.com
  5. Security-Oriented Alpine Linux 3.7 Has UEFI Support, GRUB Support in Installer, Softpedia News
  6. 10 Most Secure Linux Distros For Complete Privacy & Anonymity | 2017 Edition, FossBytes
  7. Is Docker ditching Ubuntu Linux? Confusion reigns | Network World
  8. about | Alpine Linux
  9. Meet Alpine Linux, Docker’s Distribution of Choice for Containers
  10. Alpine Linux News archive
  11. Announcements on DistroWatch.com
  12. Alpine Linux:Releases
  13. "Alpine Linux package management".
  14. "Alpine local backup".
  15. "About".
  16. "Alpine Configuration Framework".
  17. "Release notes". alpinelinux.org. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  18. "musl FAQ".
  19. "Alpine Linux Init System".
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