The Void (Linux) distribution
Void is a general purpose operating system, based on the monolithic Linux kernel. Its package system allows you to quickly install, update and remove software; software is provided in binary packages or can be built directly from sources with the help of the XBPS source packages collection.
It is available for a variety of platforms. Software packages can be built natively or cross compiled through the XBPS source packages collection.
Follow us on Mastodon, visit the #voidlinux IRC channel on libera.chat, and join the Void Linux subreddit.
Visit the Void build server console for package build status updates.
Contribute to the Void Linux project by adding and updating packages and extending the documentation. More information can be found in the Handbook.
Not a fork!
Void Linux is an independent distribution, developed entirely by volunteers.
Unlike trillions of other existing distros, Void is not a modification of an existing distribution. Void's package manager and build system have been written from scratch.
Stable rolling release
Void focuses on stability, rather than on being bleeding-edge. Install once, update routinely and safely.
Thanks to our continuous build system, new software is built into binary packages as soon as the changes are pushed to the void-packages repository.
runit
We use runit as the init system and service supervisor.
runit is a simple and effective approach to initialize the system with reliable service supervision. Refer to the Void Handbook for an introduction.
C library diversity
Void Linux supports both the musl and GNU libc implementations, patching incompatible software when necessary and working with upstream developers to improve the correctness and portability of their projects.
XBPS
xbps is the native system package manager, written from scratch with a 2-clause BSD license.
XBPS allows you to quickly install/update/remove software in your system and features detection of incompatible shared libraries and dependencies while updating or removing packages (among others). Refer to the Handbook for an overview.
xbps-src
xbps-src is the xbps package builder, written from scratch with a 2-clause BSD license.
This builds the software in containers through the use of Linux namespaces, providing isolation of processes and bind mounts (among others). No root required!
Additionally, xbps-src can build natively or cross compile for the target machine, and supports multiple C libraries (glibc and musl currently).
September 29, 2024
Goodbye, Python 2! Hello, New Buildbot!
At long last, Void is saying goodbye to Python 2. Python ended support for
Python 2 in 2020, but Void still had over 200 packages that depended on it.
Since then, Void contributors have
updated, patched, or removed
these packages. For the moment, Python 2 will remain in the repositories as
python2 (along with python2-setuptools and python2-pip). python is
now a metapackage that will soon point to python3.
One of the biggest blockers for this project was some of Void’s own infrastructure: our buildbot, which builds all packages for delivery to users. For a long time, we were stuck on buildbot 0.8.12 (released on 21 April 2015 and using Python 2), because it was complex to get working, had many moving parts, and was fairly fragile. To update it to a modern version would require significant time and effort.
Now, we move into the future: we’ve upgraded our buildbot to version 4.0, and it is now being managed via our orchestration system, Nomad, to improve reliability, observability, and reproducibility in deployment. Check out the 2023 Infrastructure Week series of blog posts for more info about how and why Void uses Nomad.
Visit the new buildbot dashboard at build.voidlinux.org and watch your packages build!
July 12, 2024
Welcome a New Contributor!
The Void project is pleased to welcome aboard another new member, @tranzystorekk.
Interested in seeing your name in a future update here? Read our Contributing Page and find a place to help out! New members are invited from the community of contributors.