Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a Linux distribution designed to be small, simple and secure.[3] Alpine Linux uses musl, BusyBox and OpenRC instead of the more commonly used glibc, GNU Core Utilities and systemd respectively.[4][5][6][7][8]

Alpine Linux
DeveloperAlpine Linux development team
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateActive
Source modelOpen source
Initial releaseAugust 2005 (2005-08)[1]
Latest release3.18.0 / 9 May 2023 (2023-05-09)[2]
Repository
Marketing targetPower users
Available inMultilingual
Package managerapk-tools
Platforms
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux)
UserlandBusyBox
Default
user interface		Ash
Official websitealpinelinux.org

For security, Alpine compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection.

Because of its small size and rapid startup, it is commonly used in containers providing quick boot-up times,[9][10] on virtual machines as well as on real hardware in embedded devices, such as routers, servers and NAS.

History

Originally, Alpine Linux began as an embedded-first distribution based on Gentoo Linux,[11] inspired by GNAP and the Bering-uClibc branch of LEAF Project.[1]

Alpine's package management system, apk-tools,[12] was originally a collection of shell scripts[13] but was later rewritten in C.[14]

As of 4 June 2014, Alpine Linux switched from uClibc to musl as its C standard library[15]

A hardened kernel was included in the default distribution for up to and including Alpine 3.7, which aided in reducing the impact of exploits and vulnerabilities.[16]

Features

Alpine Linux can be installed as a run-from-RAM operating system. The LBU (Alpine Local Backup)[17] 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.

By default, Alpine includes patches that allow using efficient meshed VPNs using the DMVPN standard.

Alpine 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 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.[18]

Derivatives

postmarketOS, a Linux distribution for mobile devices, is based on Alpine Linux.[19]

Due to its robustness and compactness, Alpine Linux got tightly integrated with popular developer and system administrator environments and toolsets.

References
  1. "Re: [leaf-devel] 2.6.x kernel support?". SourceForge.
  2. ""Alpine 3.18.0 released"".
  3. "about | Alpine Linux". alpinelinux.org.
  4. says, GigaTux (24 August 2010). "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. Noyes, Katherine (9 February 2016). "Is Docker ditching Ubuntu Linux? Confusion reigns". Network World.
  8. "OpenRC - Alpine Linux". wiki.alpinelinux.org.
  9. "Meet Alpine Linux, Docker's Distribution of Choice for Containers". 28 March 2017.
  10. "Review: Alpine Linux is made for Docker". InfoWorld. 10 July 2017.
  11. "Re: [leaf-devel] 2.6.x kernel support?". SourceForge.
  12. "Alpine Package Keeper - Alpine Linux". wiki.alpinelinux.org.
  13. "apk-tools". SourceForge.
  14. "apk-tools - Alpine package manager". git.alpinelinux.org.
  15. "Release notes". alpinelinux.org. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  16. "Alpine 3.8.0 released | Alpine Linux". alpinelinux.org. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  17. "Alpine local backup - Alpine Linux". wiki.alpinelinux.org.
  18. "Alpine Configuration Framework Design - Alpine Linux". wiki.alpinelinux.org.
  19. "postmarketOS // real Linux distribution for phones". postmarketos.org. 28 April 2022.
  20. "Get Alpine WSL from the Microsoft Store". apps.microsoft.com. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  21. "How to Use the Alpine Docker Official Image | Docker". www.docker.com. 8 September 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  22. sdwheeler. "Installing PowerShell on Alpine Linux - PowerShell". learn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
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