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Using alpine with Python in production is usually a mistake. Python is considerably slower with musl libc than with glibc and on top of that no one is providin

Using alpine with Python in production is usually a mistake. Python is considerably slower with musl libc than with glibc and on top of that no one is providing built wheels for musl-based platforms so you need to drag in the entire buildchain to package most projects. Who wants to build numpy from scratch as part of their build pipeline? And having a C compiler present is not great as it allows exploits to escalate their seriousness considerably. Anyway most of these security scanners are bunkum: https://pythonspeed.com/articles/docker-security-scanner/ https://pythonspeed.com/articles/docker-security-scanner/ There are not, in fact, a huge number of known and unpatched vulnerabilities in debian stable. If your tool is finding numerous problems, it is time to look more closely at your tool.

nickjj 5y ago
> Python is considerably slower with musl libc than with glibc I've noticed this years ago too. Interacting with the pg package (PostgreSQL) which has a C dependency was noticeably slower on Alpine vs Debian when performing common database operations like selecting data. Since around 2018'ish I've been using Debian (Slim) and haven't looked back. Haven't had a single issue.
- tyingq 5y ago
  It seems like it's usually down to musl's malloc being slower than glibc's. They are working on a new malloc. https://github.com/richfelker/mallocng-draft https://github.com/richfelker/mallocng-draft
  - megous 5y ago
    New malloc is already in released version of musl.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      Ah, yep, as of 1.2.1 it seems: https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/commit/?id=ea6d7847ac128f02d1f01ffd01e68341df34ac6e https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/commit/?id=ea6d7847ac128...
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  Interesting. I have heard from people anecdotally that ruby is in fact a lot faster on alpine/musl-libc. Can anyone confirm that? If so, I wonder what the difference between python and ruby is. (when they seem fairly similar languages from the outside).
- otabdeveloper4 5y ago
  That's by design. Glibc is a huge PITA but it's very carefully engineered for best performance.
whoknowswhat11 5y ago
I spent way to long learning this lesson (building packages from scratch).

nickjj 5y ago

> Python is considerably slower with musl libc than with glibc I've noticed this years ago too. Interacting with the pg package (PostgreSQL) which has a C dependency was noticeably slower on Alpine vs Debian when performing common database operations like selecting data. Since around 2018'ish I've been using Debian (Slim) and haven't looked back. Haven't had a single issue.

tyingq 5y ago
It seems like it's usually down to musl's malloc being slower than glibc's. They are working on a new malloc. https://github.com/richfelker/mallocng-draft https://github.com/richfelker/mallocng-draft
- megous 5y ago
  New malloc is already in released version of musl.
  - tyingq 5y ago
    Ah, yep, as of 1.2.1 it seems: https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/commit/?id=ea6d7847ac128f02d1f01ffd01e68341df34ac6e https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/commit/?id=ea6d7847ac128...
jrochkind1 5y ago
Interesting. I have heard from people anecdotally that ruby is in fact a lot faster on alpine/musl-libc. Can anyone confirm that? If so, I wonder what the difference between python and ruby is. (when they seem fairly similar languages from the outside).
otabdeveloper4 5y ago
That's by design. Glibc is a huge PITA but it's very carefully engineered for best performance.

whoknowswhat11 5y ago

I spent way to long learning this lesson (building packages from scratch).