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.

The diagram shows an overview of the apko and melange ecosystem and their relationships. melange apks can be used to compose both Alpine-based and Wolfi-based container images using apko.

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.