melange Overview

melange is an apk builder tool that uses declarative pipelines to create apk packages. From a single YAML file, users are able to generate multi-architecture apks that can be injected directly into apko builds. This renders apko and melange a good combination for container image factories.

The following diagram contains an overview of the apko and melange ecosystem and how they work together to compose apk-based images, using either Alpine or Wolfi as base system.

melange offers the following features:

• Fully reproducible by default. Run melange twice and you will get exactly the same binary.
• Pipeline-oriented builds. Every step of the build pipeline is defined and controlled by you, unlike traditional package managers which have distinct phases.
• Multi-architecture by default. QEMU is used to emulate various architectures, avoiding the need for cross-compilation steps.

apko and melange are part of the open source toolkit developed by Chainguard to build Wolfi and Chainguard Images.