Explain the transition from opkg to apk - to the users

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi,
please, make a posting (probably the "Installing and Using OpenWrt" is the best place for that) - that explains the transition from the current OpenWrt package manager - opkg - to the new one: apk

I've seen some developer topics, but they are not very useful for the vast majority of the OpenWrt's users.

The main concerns here are:

  • What is the main cause of the switch from opkg to apk
  • What are the benefits of apk over opkg (mainly from users' perspective)
  • What are the possible downside(s) and hurdles (for the OpenWrt users, esp. those who are current users, meaning they'll need to upgrade)
  • What are the commands for the basic and most used operations with the package manager for the OpenWrt's "normies"

I believe such topic is much needed, so we as users will know what to expect, starting from our next upgrade.

Thank you!

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here's a high level why - The future is now: opkg vs apk - #64 by efahl

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Opkg has been unmaintained for years. Time to move on.

Not much from the user's perspective, but it was getting to the stage that opkg was so very old with no-one to update it. It made more sense to move to something that is actively maintained and actively being developed.

Lots of gotchas and stuff to get to grips with on the development side but that is what snapshots are for..

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