Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 11:22:20 +0100
From: Andreas =?utf-8?B?S8OkaMOkcmk=?= <andreas.kahari@abc.se>
To: ~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org
Subject: Using repository tags ("@tag") with virtual packages
Message-ID: <aZg13CbA5CLeVI_0@dolores.invalid>
Mail-Followup-To: ~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Hi,

A few months ago I asked this question on the "Unix & Linux"
StackExchange site, but without getting a proper answer, other than
a comment saying it's not possible.

I'm posting it here to see whether anyone has had a similar issue, or
knows of plans to support this in the future, or just in general has
thoughts on the matter.  It's not a critical issue for me.

Assuming I have the following repository configuration:

	http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/main
	http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/community

	@edge http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community
	@edge http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing

I usually want to install packages associated with each other under a
common virtual package, e.g.,

	apk add -t docker-all docker docker-doc docker-cli-compose

This works fairly well, but it doesn't work if I want to use the @edge
tag, as in, e.g.,

	apk add -t docker-all docker@edge docker-doc@edge docker-cli-compose@edge

This fails with:

	ERROR: 'docker@edge' is not a valid child dependency, format is name([<>~=]version)

It would be nice if it were possible to use the tag in this context, as
it would allow me to easily install a set of related packages from a
tagged repository as a common virtual package.

-- 
Matti Andreas Kähäri
Uppsala, Sweden

.