Alpine Linux is a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

designed to be small, simple, and secure. It uses

musl musl is a C standard library intended for operating systems based on the Linux kernel, released under the MIT License. It was developed by Rich Felker to write a clean, efficient, and standards-conformant libc implementation. Overview musl wa ...

BusyBox BusyBox is a software suite that provides several List of Unix commands, Unix utilities in a single executable file. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android (operating system), Android, and FreeBSD, although many of the ...

, and

OpenRC OpenRC is a dependency-based init system for Unix-like computer operating systems. It was created by Roy Marples, a NetBSD developer who was also active in the Gentoo Linux, Gentoo project. It became more broadly adopted as an init system outsid ...

instead of the more commonly used

glibc The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project implementation of the C standard library. It provides a wrapper around the system calls of the Linux kernel and other kernels for application use. Despite its name, it now also dir ...

GNU Core Utilities The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a collection of GNU software that implements many standard, Unix-based shell commands. The utilities generally provide POSIX compliant interface when the environment variable is set, but otherwise offers ...

, and

systemd systemd is a software suite that provides an array of system components for Linux operating systems. The main aim is to unify service configuration and behavior across Linux distributions. Its primary component is a "system and service manage ...

.Security-Oriented Alpine Linux 3.7 Has UEFI Support, GRUB Support in Installer
''Softpedia News''10 Most Secure Linux Distros For Complete Privacy & Anonymity , 2017 Edition
''FossBytes'' This makes Alpine one of few Linux distributions not to be based on the GNU Core Utilities or glibc. 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 A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

providing quick boot-up times, on

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

s as well as on real hardware in embedded devices, such as routers, servers and

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

History

Originally, Alpine Linux began as an embedded-first distribution for devices such as

wireless router A wireless router or Wi-Fi router is a device that performs the functions of a router and also includes the functions of a wireless access point. It is used to provide access to the Internet or a private computer network. Depending on the m ...

s, based on

Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for ...

, inspired by and the Bering-uClibc branch of the LEAF Project. Founder Natanael Copa has said that the name was chosen as a

backronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...

for "A Linux-Powered Network Engine" or some such similar phrase, but that the exact phrase has since been forgotten. Alpine's package management system, the Alpine Package Keeper (apk), was originally a collection of

shell script A shell script is a computer program designed to be run by a Unix shell, a command-line interpreter. The various dialects of shell scripts are considered to be command languages. Typical operations performed by shell scripts include file manipu ...

s but was later rewritten in C. The aim of this package manager is to achieve a high install and update speed, which it does by writing new data directly in-place into the operating system's file system, rather than employing caching or compression. In 2014, Alpine Linux switched from

uClibc __NOTOC__ In computing, uClibc (sometimes written μClibc) is a small C standard library intended for Linux kernel-based operating systems for embedded systems and mobile devices. uClibc was written to support μClinux, a version of Linux not ...

as its

C standard library The C standard library, sometimes referred to as libc, is the standard library for the C (programming language), C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrote ...

. A PaX hardened kernel was included in the default distribution to aid in reducing the impact of exploits and vulnerabilities, but Alpine's maintainers chose to discontinue this support due to the PaX patch no longer being made publicly available. Alpine still uses a hardened toolchain and position-independent executables to minimize the potential for stack-based attacks, but is now based on the standard long term stable distribution of the Linux kernel.

Features

Alpine's primary feature is its small size, which enables it to start quickly and run in environments very low in memory and storage, such as

or embedded devices. Alpine Linux can optionally be installed as a run-from-RAM operating system. 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 running in this mode will only load a few key packages, but a tool called ''LBU'' (Alpine Local Backup) is made available that allow changes in this boot configuration to be written to a special file called an APK overlay file (usually shortened to ''apkovl''), a tar.gz file that by default stores a copy of all files in /etc that have been changed from the default configuration, with the option to track more directories as needed. Alpine offers a number of preinstalled configuration scripts which guide the user through initial configuration of the system for common computing tasks. In addition, Alpine also offers a webserver-based tool known as the Alpine Configuration Framework, which allows users less familiar with Alpine or the command line to configure the operating system in a way similar to that allowed by Debian's debconf utility. Alpine's configuration scripts are written entirely as UNIX

s, which call a small ISO image parsing utility written in C and distributed in Alpine. The Alpine Configuration Framework is scripted in Lua.

Integration with popular developer and administrator environments

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

Microsoft Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

offers a deployment-ready version of Alpine WSL for WSL2 * Docker offers official images of Alpine Linux * Microsoft PowerShell provides an Alpine Linux specific build

Derivatives

postmarketOS postmarketOS (abbreviated as pmOS) is an operating system primarily for smartphones, based on the Alpine Linux distribution. postmarketOS was launched on 26 May 2017 with the source code available on GitHub before migrating to GitLab in 2018. ...

, a Linux distribution for mobile devices, is based on Alpine Linux.

References and notes

External links

* {{Linux package management systems Independent Linux distributions Light-weight Linux distributions Linux distributions Linux distributions without systemd X86-64 Linux distributions