Apx is a tool for developers and creators, designed for Vanilla OS but can be used on any Linux distribution. It allows you to create Linux subsystems based on any distributions. Subsystems are created using a stack file, which is a simple YAML file that describes the base distribution, the package manager, and the packages to install.
Apx is built on top of Distrobox.
Please read more about Apx on the official website.
Stacks are YAML files that describe the base distribution, the package manager, and the packages to install. Package managers are also YAML files that hold the package manager configuration to use in Apx.
Example of a stack file:
# This stack provides a Golang environment for building and running Golang
# applications. It is based on the Vanilla OS Pico image.
name: my-go
base: ghcr.io/vanilla-os/pico:main
packages:
- golang
pkgmanager: aptNote the comment at the top of the file, it is a good practice to add a comment to describe the stack.
Example of a package manager file:
name: apt
model: 2
needsudo: true
cmdautoremove: apt autoremove
cmdclean: apt clean
cmdinstall: apt install
cmdlist: apt list
cmdpurge: apt purge
cmdremove: apt remove
cmdsearch: apt search
cmdshow: apt show
cmdupdate: apt update
cmdupgrade: apt upgradenote the model field in the package manager file, it is used to determine the syntax to use in the file. Currently the model 1 is deprecated and model 2 is the only one supported so just follow the example above.
You can contribute by creating a pull request with your stack and/or package manager files and place them in the correct directory, for example, if you have a stack file for a Go development environment, you can place it in the stacks/<distribution> directory and the file should be named like the name field in the stack file:
stacks/
vanilla-os/
my-go.yaml
The distribution name should be the same as the base distribution in the stack file, if the folder does not exist, you can create it. The format for the distribution folder name should be the same as the official distribution name, lowercase and with dashes instead of spaces (e.g. vanilla-os, arch-linux, fedora, etc).
If you have a package manager file, you can place it in the pkgmanagers directory and the file should be named like the name field in the package manager file:
pkgmanagers/
apt.yaml
We accept any stack and package manager files that are not harmful to the user's system. We will review the files before merging them into the repository.
The package manager must be available inside the base image. If your image has a specific package manager that is not available in this repo already, you should provide its configuration in a package manager file in the same way as the example above.
You can include as many packages as you want, but keep in mind that the more packages you include, the longer it will take to install them. A better choice would be to create your custom OCI image and publish it on a registry like GitHub Container Registry or Docker Hub. Then you can use that image as the base in your stack file.
