packaging

Package build templates are just shell files following a simple format. Changes happen by submitting a pull request to the void linux packages repository on github. It's not ideal that they use github, but it works well for them and makes it easy for most void users to contribute.

services

Void uses the runit init system.

connman

Popular network manager replacement.

pipewire

Fancy new audio system.

elogind

Session and seat management without systemd.

package manager aliases

# alias xi='sudo xbps-install -S' // Use xi from xtools instead
alias xu='sudo xbps-install -Su'
alias xs='xbps-query -Rs'
alias xr='sudo xbps-pkgdb -m auto'
alias xrm='sudo xbps-remove -R'
alias xc='sudo xbps-remove -Oo && sudo vkpurge rm all'
alias xinfo='xbps-query -R -S'

xmetagen

henry created a set of shell scripts for generating a meta package when you need to install a bunch of shit to compile something and want to cleanly remove it later.
https://git.sr.ht/~hnaguski/xmetagen

socklog

Install the socklog-void package
Enable the socklog-unix and nanoklogd services
View logs with sudo svlogtail or by looking in /var/log/socklog/

manuals

Void doesn't come with the development manuals by default. These are the packages.

man-pages-posix
man-pages-devel

alternatives

Some packages, java in particular, have multiple versions packaged that can all be installed at the same time. The xbps-alternatives command allows picking one of these packages as the "default" install. In java's case that means picking which java binaries are in your PATH.

Packages are placed into one or more groups. You can list the groups a package is in with a command such as xbps-alternatives -l openjdk17. This shows that openjdk17 is in the java group and the jdk group.

Now you can set openjdk17 to be default for all it's groups with:
sudo xbps-alternatives -s openjdk17

Or filter to a specific group only with the -g option.

bitmap fonts

For some reason on void linux and probably other distros firefox will try to use some terrible looking bitmap fonts by default. I don't really know why this is an issue, but the quickest solution is to just disable them:

# ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
# xbps-reconfigure -f fontconfig