void-packages/README

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Void GNU/Linux is a new distribution that uses XBPS as its package system,
The X Binary Package System has been designed from scratch, please visit
http://code.google.com/p/xbps for more information.
Void GNU/Linux is a simple and minimal distribution that can be customized
in many ways, through the use of virtual packages. Currently there are
1500 packages in the current repository that you can build and install.
There is support for i686 and x86_64 architectures, more may be added in
a future (i.e. ARM) but it's not a high priority.
Some features:
- It's not a fork or customized version of any distro, it has been created
from scratch making it an extremely lightweight distro. Base install is
approximately 150MB.
- Rolling release.
- Uses the latest stable Linux kernel. The development snapshot from kernel.org
can also be installed in parallel.
- Kernel images/modules are never removed, providing an always-bootable system.
- Uses a modified "initramfs-tools" version from Debian to handle initial
ramdisk images.
- Uses a modified "casper" version from Ubuntu to boot from live images.
- Uses a modified "OpenRC" version from Gentoo to handle the init/boot process.
- Uses /run directory as tmpfs by default, with symlinks to /tmp, /var/tmp,
/var/lock, /var/run, /dev/shm.
- Uses its own binary package system: XBPS -- A faster/leaner alternative to Debian's
dpkg/apt, RedHat's RPM, ArchLinux's Pacman, etc.
- You don't need wrappers of wrappers for the XBPS utils to rebuild/reinstall
packages. The provided tools are all that you need.
- Uses a BSD port-like system to build binary packages in chroot jails
without requiring root permissions. This allows building packages as a regular user
without interfering with your installed system!
When a new stable XBPS version comes out, a new live image is created for
testing purposes along with the minimal base system.
You can find the Live Images at:
http://xbps.nopcode.org/live/
If you have questions or contributions please use the google groups forum:
http://groups.google.com/group/xbps
or join us at irc.freenode.net #xbps.
Enjoy and happy hacking!