opkg to apk cheat sheet

This is a cheat sheet which aims to help with a seamless transition from the previous opkg package manager to the new apk.

Just as with opkg, most commands allow an optional package name pattern (denoted [P] in commands below). Again, like opkg, the patterns are file globs, e.g., *dns* matches every package with dns somewhere in its name.

Adding is substantially the same with both package managers. One difference is that apk wants you to provide valid signatures for all packages, while opkg ignores this on local ones, so if you're installing a non-standard (self-built) package, use the --allow-untrusted option:

$ apk add ./owut_2024.07.01~189b2721-r1.apk
ERROR: ./owut_2024.07.01~189b2721-r1.apk: UNTRUSTED signature

$ apk add --allow-untrusted ./owut_2024.07.01~189b2721-r1.apk
OK: 2313 MiB in 569 packages

Using our note above about --update-cache, we can now replace the traditional chained opkg commands with a single apk one.

$ opkg update && opkg install dnsmasq-full

becomes

$ apk --update-cache add dnsmasq-full

To reiterate, [P] is a file glob in the following.

Interesting variants

• apk list --installed --orphaned - shows any dependencies that have been orphaned, i.e., unused packages that may be safely deleted
• apk list --installed --manifest - produces a simple list of “package-name version” pairs that are easily parsed with awk or sed

Comparative examples of listings:

$ opkg -A whatprovides dnsmasq  # Show all candidates
What provides dnsmasq
    dnsmasq-dhcpv6
    dnsmasq
    dnsmasq-full

$ apk list --providers dnsmasq
<dnsmasq> dnsmasq-2.90-r3 x86_64 {dnsmasq} (GPL-2.0-or-later)
<dnsmasq> dnsmasq-dnssec-2.90-r3 x86_64 {dnsmasq} (GPL-2.0-or-later)
<dnsmasq> dnsmasq-dnssec-dbus-2.90-r3 x86_64 {dnsmasq} (GPL-2.0-or-later)
<dnsmasq> dnsmasq-dnssec-nftset-2.90-r3 x86_64 {dnsmasq} (GPL-2.0-or-later)

Show installed provider for `dnsmasq`:

$ opkg whatprovides dnsmasq  # Show the installed provider
What provides dnsmasq
    dnsmasq-full

$ apk list --installed --providers dnsmasq
<dnsmasq> dnsmasq-2.90-r3 x86_64 {dnsmasq} (GPL-2.0-or-later)