Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:40:28 -0500
From: Dubiousjim <lists+alpine-devel@jimpryor.net>
To: alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org
Subject: Re: [alpine-devel] Some questions about apk-tools
Message-ID: <20121129124028.GE2390@vaio.jimpryor.net>
References: <20121128234406.GD2390@vaio.jimpryor.net>
 <20121129084044.29515fc1@vostro>
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Hi Timo, thanks for your replies!

On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 08:40:44AM +0200, Timo Teras wrote:
> > 
> > What exactly is the difference between `apk add ...` and `apk
> > fix ...`?
> 
> "add" will record in the '/etc/apk/world' that the package is something
> user wanted explicitly to be installed.
> 
> "fix" will just re-install it only if it is already installed. "fix"
> will always also re-install the package, "add" will only do things if
> it was not installed.
> 
> > What is the difference between `apk add -u ...` and `apk fix -u ...`
> > and `apk fix -r ...` and `apk upgrade` (except for the fact that the
> > last operates on a broader set of packages)?
> 
> "add -u" will record the package in world. "fix -u" will do almost same
> thing except not record the package in world.

Ok, but I'm still unclear on the difference between the without "-u" and
the with "-u" version of each of these.

Suppose I've got these packages installed:

alpha-1.0
beta-1.0

And that these packages are available in my repositories:

alpha-1.0
beta-2.0
gamma-2.0

The handling of /etc/apk/world aside, will there be any difference in
the behavior of "apk add _", "apk add -u _", "apk fix _" and "apk fix -u
_", when each of alpha,beta,gamma are substituted for _:

Trying to get a handle on why the "-u" option is there.

> With "fix -r" will operate on the specified package list, and can
> re-install most of the package.

So "fix -r foo" reinstalls foo and all of foo's dependencies? I'm not
sure if I'm understanding rightly?

> "upgrade" works with world - it
> upgrades all packages. "upgrade -a" is also notable, and in addition to
> regular "upgrade" it also resets all versioned world dependencies, and
> tries to make sure all packages come from some active repository.

Right, I understand the broad outlines of upgrade and upgrade -a. But
let's say that beta is the only installed package I have that's out of
date (as in the above examples). In that situation, would "apk upgrade"
have the same net effect as "apk add beta"? Or "apk add -u beta"? or
some form of "apk fix"?


> > What exactly is the effect of `apk add --initdb`?
> 
> It creates the apk databases in /lib/apk/db/. Basically, this is needed
> when you are creating a new rootfs, or chroot install.

Ok, thanks.

> > What exactly is the effect of the "generic options" --clean-protected
> > and --purge? I see that they have to do with .apk-new files, but would
> > appreciate hearing them explained more fully.
> 
> In /etc/apk/protected_paths.d/*.list you can define which system
> directories are treated specially. Generally this is /etc. On these
> "protected directories" apk never overwrites modified files. Normally,
> if file is modified, the new file will be extracted with .apk-new
> extension (e.g. updated sample or default config file).
> 
> --clean-protected will make apk not create those .apk-new files. The
> updated config files are just silently discarded and not made available.
> 
> --purge affects only "del" command. If package is deleted, and it has
> modified config file, it is normally left intact. With --purge all
> config files will be deleted regardless if they are modified or not.

Ok, thanks.

> > What exactly is the behavior of `apk audit`? Does it work only in
> > cooperation with lbu? What is the exact effect of the --backup and
> > --recursive options for this command?
> 
> You can use "audit" independently and it can be useful. It was created
> for lbu, though. Basically, lbu uses "audit" to figure out which files
> need to go into the overlay tarball.
> 
> "audit" requires you to specify --backup or --system to determine mode
> of operation. --backup makes it only consider "protected files", that
> is the special directories marked as to contain configuration files.
> Where as --system makes apk consider all installed files - this can be
> used to do security audit that no system binary is changed.
> 
> --recursive option changes audit output. Normally if there is a new
> directory inside /etc, apk would just report the directory entry.
> --recursive makes apk scan the new directory for all files/subdirs and
> report them individually. This was created to help 'lbu' pass the full
> filelist to tar. I believe we needed this to properly store minimal set
> of changes with tar in case someone modified permissions of
> protected directory. Basically it makes output to something which can
> be just passed on to "tar --no-recursion".
> 
> > If I do get to understand these things better, I'll try to help make
> > sure they're better documented.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Please do ask if there's additional things you want to know. Many of
> apk's features are not documented well enough. So thank you for helping
> in this!

Thanks, all of the rest is clear.

-- 
Dubiousjim
dubiousjim@gmail.com


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