opkg to apk transition

[jefferypalmer]

Just starting up a new hardware/project build around openwrt, and getting a quick feel for where openwisp development is at in supporting / changing from opkg to apk from the current v24 to the new probable v25 where the package manager is updated.

Maybe openwisp doesn't even interface to raw package commands such as opkg and apk and instead use a local on terminal API to translate install/update/etc commands.

Just getting a quick state of various development tasks and orient our support/code efforts in the right place.

Thanks!

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/opkg-to-apk-cheatsheet

[okraits]

AFAIK we already updated our makefiles to comply with apk.

See

• openwisp-config: add missing PKG_VERSION for APK openwrt/packages#24793
• openwisp-monitoring: add missing PKG_VERSION for APK openwrt/packages#24794

[jefferypalmer]

Fantastic! Does this lead into utilizing apk for automatic dependency updates and upgrades? It seems openwisp only performs full image "firmware" updates vs package level updates? Interested to get some hints on what the openwisp project leads are thinking about here so we can work towards code commits on this project and supporting a more modular update system with the new apk capabilities. Thanks again.

[okraits]

I'm not the project lead, I only speak for myself and what my company does.

AFAIK this is independent of wether opkg or apk is used for package management.

You're free to do firmware level updates or package level updates. Which means you can build your own images with the OpenWISP client packages preinstalled, and then upgrade from image to image. Or you can use a standard, upstream OpenWrt image and then install the OpenWISP client packages and update them on and on with the package manager.

We as a hardware manufacturer build our own images with the OpenWISP client packages preinstalled and upgrade from image to image.