alpine-update-packages

name	alpine-update-packages
description	Update package versions in templates for Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux Update Packages

Detailed instructions for agent to follow when this skill is activated.

Special Instruction for Alpine Linux Templates

When instructed to update package versions in Alpine Linux templates:

1. Examine the provisioner "shell" blocks within the relevant .pkr.hcl files.

2. Identify any packages installed with hardcoded versions specified in the environment_vars (e.g., PACKAGE_NAME=package=1.2.3-r0). Packages without explicit versions do not need manual updates, as apk fetches the latest during build.

3. For each package with a hardcoded version:

   • Identify the target Alpine release (e.g., v3.21), repository (main or community), and architecture (x86_64, aarch64) based on the template context.
   • Construct the URL: https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/{alpine_version}/{repo}/{arch}/APKINDEX.tar.gz.
   • Download and save the file locally to a cache directory (e.g., .cache/apkindex/{version}_{repo}_{arch}/).
   • At least 1 minute has elapsed since the last HTTP request to dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org (regardless of which {alpine_version}, {repo}, or {arch} combination was previously downloaded)
   • This throttling prevents redundant downloads and avoids DoS-like traffic patterns by enforcing a 1-minute minimum interval between all consecutive HTTP requests to the same remote host.

4. Parse the APKINDEX metadata to extract package details:

   • Decompress the downloaded .tar.gz archive to access the plain- text APKINDEX file.
   • Scan the file for entries matching your target package name (P:). Each package entry is a block of key-value pairs separated by newlines, ending with an empty line or the next P: field.
   • Extract the following fields from the matched entry:
     • Package Name: Value immediately after P: (e.g., 7zip)
     • Version: Value immediately after V: (e.g., 23.01-r0)
     • Target Architecture: Value immediately after A: (e.g., x86_64)
   • Compare the extracted version (V:) with the hardcoded version in your .pkr.hcl file. If they differ, update the hardcoded value to match the latest available version from the metadata.

5. Validate that the target architecture (A:) matches the template's intended build environment before applying updates.