¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

Let’s say you want to install an older version of jq in Alpine Linux.

For example:

• Alpine v3.18 has jq 1.6
• Alpine v3.19 has jq 1.7

You’re probably using Alpine v3.21 or edge today, which has an even newer version of jq. Hence doas apk add jq will not do.

Let’s assume you do not want to edit your /etc/apk/repositories, as this is an one-off, for a single package. What can you do then?

Use the --repository flag from apk!

% doas apk add --no-cache --repository=http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.18/main jq=~1.6

It’s also important to pin the package version (~1.6), otherwise the latest one available gets installed.

Replace “main” with “community” or “testing” as needed.