zypper - Man Page

Command-line interface to ZYpp system management library (libzypp)

Examples (TL;DR)

Synopsis

zypper [--global-opts] command [--command-opts] [command-arguments]

zypper subcommand [--command-opts] [command-arguments]

zypper help command

Description

zypper is a command-line interface to ZYpp system management library (libzypp). It can be used to install, update, remove software, manage repositories, perform various queries, and more.

Concepts

Most of the following concepts are common for all applications based on the libzypp package management library, but there are some zypper specifics.

System Packages

The set of installed packages on a system is sometimes denoted as repository @System or System Packages. In contrast to available repositories providing packages which can be installed, @System provides packages which can only be deleted. Installed packages which are not also provided by at least one of the available repositories are often denoted as being unwanted, orphaned or dropped.

Repositories

Libzypp works with repository metadata, this is information about packages and their relations extracted from RPM packages and other data like patch information, pattern definitions, etc. These data are stored together with the RPM files in folders called repositories. Repositories can be placed on various media like an HTTP or FTP server, DVD, or a folder on a local disc.

There is a special set of commands in zypper intended to manipulate repositories. Also many commands and options take a repository as an argument. See section Commands, subsection Repository Management for more details.

GPG checks

Disabling GPG checks is not recommended. Signing data enables the recipient to verify that no modifications occurred after the data were signed. Accepting data with no, wrong or unknown signature can lead to a corrupted system and in extreme cases even to a system compromise.

Zypp verifies the authenticity of repository metadata by checking their GPG signature. If the repository metadata are signed with a trusted key and successfully verified, packages from this repository are accepted for installation if they match the checksum provided in the metadata. Using unsigned repositories needs to be confirmed.

If the repository metadata are not signed, the GPG signature of each downloaded rpm package is checked before accepting it for installation. Packages from unsigned repositories need a valid GPG signature. Using unsigned packages needs to be confirmed.

The above is the default behavior defined by settings in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf.

The addrepo and modifyrepo commands provide further options to tune the behavior per repository. It is for example possible to relax the need to confirm installing unsigned packages for a specific repository. But if you do so, you should be very certain that an attacker can hardly modify the package data within the repository or on the way to your machine. See section Commands for details about the command options.

Resource Identifiers (URI)

To specify locations of repositories or other resources (RPM files, .repo files) you can use any type of URI supported by libzypp. In addition Zypper accepts a special URI identifying openSUSE Build Service (OBS) repositories in the addrepo command. These URIs have the form of obs://project/[platform].

See section Commands, subsection Repository Management for a complete list and examples of supported URI formats.

Refresh

Refreshing a repository means downloading metadata of packages from the medium (if needed), storing it in local cache (typically under /var/cache/zypp/raw/alias directory) and preparsing the metadata into .solv files (building the solv cache), typically under /var/cache/zypp/solv/alias.

The metadata get refreshed either automatically or on user request. An automatic refresh takes place right before reading metadata from the database if the auto-refresh is enabled for the repository and the metadata is reported to be out of date. If the auto-refresh is disabled, the repository will only be refreshed on user request. You can request a refresh by calling zypper refresh (see the documentation of the refresh command for details).

The repository metadata are checked for changes before actually doing the refresh. A change is detected by downloading one or two metadata index files (small files) and comparing the checksums of the cached ones and the remote ones. If the files differ, the repository is out of date and will be refreshed.

To delay the up-to-date check (and thus the automatic refresh) for a certain number of minutes, edit the value of the repo.refresh.delay attribute of ZYpp config file (/etc/zypp/zypp.conf). This means, zypper will not even try to download and check the index files, and you will be able to use zypper for operations like search or info without internet access or root privileges.

Services

Services are one level above repositories and serve to manage repositories or to do some special tasks. Libzypp currently supports Repository Index Service (RIS) and Plugin Service.

Repository Index Service (RIS) is a special type of repository which contains a list of other repositories. This list can be generated dynamically by the server according to some URI parameters or user name, or can be static. Once such service is added to your system, zypper takes care of adding, modifying, or removing these repositories on your system to reflect the current list. See section Service Management and https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Standards_Repository_Index_Service for more details.

Package Types

Zypper works with several types of resource objects, called resolvables. A resolvable might be a package, patch, pattern, product; basically any kind of object with dependencies to other objects.

package

An ordinary RPM package.

patch

A released patch conflicts with the affected/vulnerable versions of a collection of packages. As long as any of these affected/vulnerable versions are installed, the conflict triggers and the patch is classified as needed, or as unwanted if the patch is locked.

Selecting the patch, the conflict is resolved by updating all installed and affected/vulnerable packages to a version providing the fix. When updating the packages zypper always aims for the latest available version. Resolved patches are classified as either applied or not needed, depending on whether they refer to actually installed packages.

So installation, update or removal of packages may change the classification of patches referring to these packages. Since libyzpp-17.23.0 the /var/log/zypp/history remembers if a committed transaction changes a patchs classification. If history data are available, patch tables show a column telling since when the patch is in it’s current state.

Depending on the kind of defect, patches are classified by category and severity. Commonly used values for category are security, (recommended, bugfix), (optional, feature, enhancement) document or yast. Commonly used values for severity are critical, important, moderate, low or unspecified. Names listed in parentheses are used synonymously.

Note that the patch command does not apply optional patches (category optional or feature) by default. If you actually want to consider all optional patches as being needed, say patch --with-optional. Specific patches can be applied using the install command (e.g. zypper install patch:openSUSE-2014-7).

If the issuer decides to retract a released patch, the patch status will be shown as retracted. The packages provided by the retracted patch are still visible but also tagged as having been retracted (R). The resolver will avoid selecting retracted packages automatically. If you are sure that a retracted package should be installed on your system, you must explicitly select it.

pattern

A group of packages required or recommended to install some functionality.

product

A group of packages which are necessary to install a product.

srcpackage

Source code package (.src.rpm). This type works in search and install commands.

application

Legacy: Since libzypp-17.7.0 this type is no longer available.

Throughout this manual we will often refer to resolvables simply as packages and to resolvable types as package type or kind. These type names can be used as arguments of --type option in several commands like install, info, or search. Commands should also allow one to specify resolvables as KIND:NAME (e.g. patch:openSUSE-2014-7).

Package Dependencies

Software packages depend on each other in various ways. Packages usually require or recommend other packages, but they can also conflict with them. Packages may support specific hardware or language settings. Zypper uses a dependency solver to find out which packages need to be installed to satisfy the user’s request.

If you do not request a specific version of a package the solver will pick a reasonable one. The solvers general attitude when resolving a job is to focus on installing the best version of the requested package and to add or update dependencies as they are needed. Aside from this Focus on Job, which is the default, two other focus modes are available:

In Focus on Installed mode the solver focuses on applying as little changes to the installed packages as needed. Choosing an older version of a requested package is valid if it’s dependencies require less changes to the system. The solver will try to avoid updating already installed packages.

In Focus on Update mode the solver focuses on updating the requested package and all its dependencies as much as possible. Beware, installing a single package in this mode may easily lead to a mini system update.

For a single command the focus mode can be set using the --solver-focus MODE switch. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. If you want to change the default mode for your system, set [/etc/zypp/zypp.conf:solver.focus] to the desired value.

Automatically installed packages

Packages added by the dependency solver in order to resolve a user’s request are remembered as having been automatically installed. They may later be removed, if no more user installed packages depend on them (e.g. by zypper remove --clean-deps).

In the Status column the search command distinguishes between user installed packages (i+) and automatically installed packages (i).

Package File Conflicts

File conflicts happen when two packages attempt to install files with the same name but different contents. This may happen if you are installing a newer version of a package without erasing the older version, of if two unrelated packages each install a file with the same name.

As checking for file conflicts requires access to the full filelist of each package being installed, zypper will be able to check for file conflicts only if all packages are downloaded in advance (see --download-in-advance). If you are doing a --dry-run no packages are downloaded, so the file conflict check will skip packages not available in the packages cache. To get a meaningful file conflict check use --dry-run together with --download-only.

As the reason for file conflicts usually is a poor package design or lack of coordination between the people building the packages, they are not easy to resolve. By using the --replacefiles option you can force zypper to replace the conflicting files. Nevertheless this may damage the package whose file gets replaced.

Commands

zypper provides a number of commands. Each command accepts the options listed in the Global Options section. These options must be specified before the command name. In addition, many commands have specific options, which are listed in this section. These command-specific options must be specified after the name of the command and before any of the command arguments.

Zypper also provides limited support for writing extensions/subcommands in any language. See section Subcommands for details.

General Commands

help [command]

Shows help texts. If invoked without any argument (just zypper or zypper help), zypper displays global help text which lists all available global options and commands.

If invoked with a command name argument, zypper displays help for the specified command, if such command exists. Long as well as short variants of the command names can be used.

For your convenience, zypper help can also be invoked in any of the following ways:

$ zypper -h|--help [command]

$ zypper [command] -h|--help

shell (sh)

Starts a shell for entering multiple commands in one session. Exit the shell using exit, quit, or Ctrl-D.

The shell support is not complete so expect bugs there. However, there’s no urgent need to use the shell since libzypp became so fast thanks to the SAT solver and its tools (openSUSE 11.0), but still, you’re welcome to experiment with it.

Package Management Commands

info (if) [options] name...

Displays detailed information about the specified packages.

For each specified package, zypper finds the best available version in defined repositories and shows information for this package. In case the query result is empty zypper returns ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_CAP_NOT_FOUND, unless the --ignore-unknown global option is set.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-t, --type type

Type of package (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

--provides

Show symbols the package provides.

--requires

Show symbols the package requires.

--conflicts

Show symbols the package conflicts with.

--obsoletes

Show symbols the package obsoletes.

--recommends

Show symbols the package recommends.

--suggests

Show symbols the package suggests.

--supplements

Show symbols the package supplements.

Examples:

$ zypper info workrave

Show information about package workrave

$ zypper info -t patch libzypp

Show information about patch libzypp

$ zypper info -t pattern lamp_server

Show information about pattern lamp_server

install (in) [options] name|capability|rpm_file_uri...

Install or update packages.

The packages can be selected by their name or by a capability they provide.

A capability is formed by "NAME[.ARCH][ OP EDITION]", where ARCH is an architecture code, OP is one of <, <=, =, >=, or > and EDITION is "VERSION[-RELEASE]". For example: zypper=0.8.8-2.

The NAME component of a capability is not only a package name but any symbol provided by packages: /bin/vi, libcurl.so.3, perl(Time::ParseDate). Just remember to quote to protect the special characters from the shell, for example: zypper\>0.8.10 or 'zypper>0.8.10'.

If EDITION is not specified, the newest installable version will be installed. This also means that if the package is already installed and newer versions are available, it will get upgraded to the newest installable version.

If ARCH is not specified, or the last dot of the capability name string is not followed by known architecture, the solver will treat the whole string as a capability name. If the ARCH is known, the solver will select a package matching that architecture and complain if such package cannot be found.

Zypper is also able to install plain RPM files while trying to satisfy their dependencies using packages from defined repositories. You can install a plain RPM file by specifying its location in the install command arguments either as a local path or an URI. E.g.:

$ zypper install ~/rpms/foo.rpm http://some.site/bar.rpm

Zypper will report packages that it cannot find. Further, in interactive mode, zypper proceeds with installation of the rest of requested packages, and it will abort immediately in non-interactive mode. In both cases zypper returns ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_CAP_NOT_FOUND after finishing the operation.

Zypper will collect the files in a temporary plaindir repository and mark the respective packages for installation. If --download-only is used, the downloaded packages will be available in /var/cache/zypper/RPMS until you actually install them or call zypper clean to clear the package caches. They will not become part of the global package cache at /var/cache/zypp/packages (see also the global --pkg-cache-dir option).

In the install command, you can also specify packages you wish to remove by prepending their names by a - or ! character. For example:

$ zypper install \!Firefox 

In contrast to zypper remove Firefox which removes Firefox and its dependent packages, the install command will try to keep dependent packages installed by looking for Firefox alternatives.

Note that if you choose to use - with the first package you specify, you need to write -- before it to prevent its interpretation as a command option:

$ zypper install --  -boring-game great-game great-game-manual 

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

Using --repo is discouraged as it currently hides unmentioned repositories from the resolver, leading to inexpertly decisions. In the future --repo will become an alias for --from.

-t, --type type

Type of package to install (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types. Use zypper se -t type [name] to look for available items of this type and zypper info -t type name to display more detailed information about the item.

If patch is specified, zypper will install and/or remove packages to satisfy specified patch. This is a way to ensure that specific bug fix is installed. Use zypper list-patches to look for applicable patches.

If product or pattern are specified, zypper ensures that all required (and optionally recommended) packages are installed.

-n, --name

Select packages by their name, don’t try to select by capabilities.

-f, --force

Install even if the item is already installed (reinstall), downgraded or changes vendor or architecture.

--oldpackage

Allows one to replace a newer item with an older one. Handy if you are doing a rollback. Unlike --force it will not enforce a reinstall, if the item is already installed with the requested version.

--from alias|name|#|URI

Select packages from specified repository. If strings specified as arguments to the install command match packages in repositories specified in this option, they will be marked for installation. This option currently implies --name, but allows using wildcards for specifying packages.

-C, --capability

Select packages by capabilities.

-l, --auto-agree-with-licenses

Automatically say yes to third party license confirmation prompt. By using this option, you choose to agree with licenses of all third-party software this command will install. This option is particularly useful for administrators installing the same set of packages on multiple machines (by an automated process) and have the licenses confirmed before.

--auto-agree-with-product-licenses

Automatically accept product licenses only. This is used by tools like SUSEconnect, which ask for confirmation before the product gets registered. So there’s no need to confirm the product license again at install time.

--replacefiles

Install the packages even if they replace files from other, already installed, packages. Default is to treat file conflicts as an error. --download-as-needed disables the file conflict check because access to all packages file lists is needed in advance in order to perform the check.

-D, --dry-run

Test the installation, do not actually install any package. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

--allow-unsigned-rpm

Silently install unsigned rpm packages given as commandline parameters.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Download-and-install mode options:

-d, --download-only

Only download the packages for later installation (see also the global --pkg-cache-dir option).

If used together with --dry-run a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--download-in-advance

First download all packages, then start installing. This is the default.

--download-in-heaps

Download a minimal set of packages that can be installed without leaving the system in broken state, and install them. Then download and install another heap until all are installed. This helps to keep the system in consistent state without the need to download all packages in advance, which combines the advantages of --download-in-advance and --download-as-needed.

Note

While the resolver is not capable of building heaps, this behaves the same as --download-in-advance.

--download-as-needed

Download one package, install it immediately, and continue with the rest until all are installed.

--download mode

Use the specified download-and-install mode. Available modes are: only, in-advance, in-heaps, as-needed. See corresponding --download-mode options for their description.

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

Examples:

$ zypper install -t pattern lamp_server

Install lamp_server pattern.

$ zypper install --no-recommends gv

Install GhostScript viewer, but ignore recommended packages.

$ zypper install virtualbox-ose-2.0.6

$ zypper install virtualbox-ose=2.0.6

$ zypper install virtualbox-ose = 2.0.6

Install version 2.0.6 of virtualbox-ose package.

source-install (si) name...

Install specified source packages and their build dependencies. If the name of a binary package is given, the corresponding source package is looked up and installed instead.

This command will try to find the newest available versions of the source packages and uses rpm -i to install them, optionally together with all the packages that are required to build the source package. The default location where rpm installs source packages to is /usr/src/packages/{SPECS,SOURCES}, but the values can be changed in your local rpm configuration. In case of doubt try executing rpm --eval "%{_specdir} and %{_sourcedir}".

Note that the source packages must be available in repositories you are using. You can check whether a repository contains any source packages using the following command:

$ zypper search -t srcpackage -r alias|name|#|URI

$ zypper search -t srcpackage -r alias|name|#|URI

-d, --build-deps-only

Install only build dependencies of specified packages.

-D, --no-build-deps

Don’t install build dependencies.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

--download-only

Only download the packages, do not install.

Examples:

$ zypper si -d dbus-1

Install build dependencies of dbus-1 source package.

verify (ve) [options]

Check whether dependencies of installed packages are satisfied.

In case that any dependency problems are found, zypper suggests packages to install or remove to fix them.

-D, --dry-run

Test the repair, do not actually do anything to the system. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

This command also accepts the Download-and-install mode options described in the install command.

install-new-recommends (inr) [options]

Install newly added packages recommended by already installed ones. This command basically re-evaluates the recommendations of all installed packages and fills up the system accordingly. You don’t want to call this unconditionally on small or minimal systems, as it may easily add a large number of packages.

Called as zypper inr --no-recommends, it restricts the command to just look for packages supporting available hardware, languages or filesystems. Useful after having added e.g. new hardware or driver repos. This is also the default behavior if you have set [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-D, --dry-run

Test the installation, do not actually install anything. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

This command also accepts the Download-and-install mode options described in the install command.

remove (rm) [options] name...

remove (rm) [options] --capability capability...

Remove (uninstall) packages.

The remove command will uninstall the selected and their dependent packages. It will not try to install alternatives in order to keep dependent packages installed. If you want this, use zypper install !name.

The packages can be selected by their name or by a capability they provide. For details on package selection see the install command description.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-t, --type type

Type of package (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

Since patches are not installed in sense of copying files or recording a database entry, they cannot be uninstalled, even though zypper shows them as installed. The installed status is determined solely based on the installed status of its required dependencies. If these dependencies are satisfied, the patch is rendered installed.

-n, --name

Select packages by their name (default).

-C, --capability

Select packages by capabilities.

-D, --dry-run

Test the removal of packages, do not actually remove anything.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R,  --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

-u,  --clean-deps

Automatically remove dependencies which become unneeded after removal of requested packages.

-U,  --no-clean-deps

No automatic removal of unneeded dependencies.

removeptf (rmptf) [options] <PTF|CAPABILITY> ...

Remove (not only) PTFs.

A remove command which prefers replacing dependant packages to removing them as well. In fact this is a full featured install command with the remove modifier (-) applied to its plain arguments. So removeptf foo is the same as install — -foo. This is why the command accepts the same options as the install command. It is the recommended way to remove a PTF (Program Temporary Fix).

A PTF is typically removed as soon as the fix it provides is applied to the latest official update of the dependant packages. But you don’t want the dependant packages to be removed together with the PTF, which is what the remove command would do. The removeptf command however will aim to replace the dependant packages by their official update versions.

supports every option the install command supports

purge-kernels [options]

Autoremoves installed kernels.

Automatically cleans up installed kernels according to the rules defined in [zypp.conf:multiversion.kernels] which can be given as <version>, latest[-N], running, oldest[+N].

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

-D,  --dry-run

Test the removal of packages, do not actually remove anything.

Update Management Commands

list-updates (lu) [options]

List available updates.

This command will list only installable updates, i.e. updates which have no dependency problems, or which do not change package vendor. This list is what the update command will propose to install. To list all packages for which newer version are available, use --all option.

-t, --type type

Type of package (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

If patch is specified, zypper acts as if the list-patches command was executed.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-a, --all

List all packages for which newer versions are available, regardless whether they are installable or not.

--best-effort

See the update command for description.

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

update (up) [options] [packagename]...

Update installed packages with newer versions, where possible.

This command will not update packages which would require change of package vendor unless the vendor is specified in /etc/zypp/vendors.d, or which would require manual resolution of problems with dependencies. Such non-installable updates will then be listed in separate section of the summary as "The following package updates will NOT be installed:".

To update individual packages, specify one or more package names. You can use the * and ? wildcard characters in the package names to specify multiple packages matching the pattern.

-t, --type type

Type of package (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

If patch is specified, zypper acts as if the patches command was executed.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

--skip-interactive

This will skip interactive patches, that is, those that need reboot, contain a message, or update a package whose license needs to be confirmed.

--with-interactive

Avoid skipping of interactive patches when in non-interactive mode.

-l, --auto-agree-with-licenses

Automatically say yes to third party license confirmation prompt. By using this option, you choose to agree with licenses of all third-party software this command will install. This option is particularly useful for administrators installing the same set of packages on multiple machines (by an automated process) and have the licenses confirmed before.

--auto-agree-with-product-licenses

Automatically accept product licenses only. This is used by tools like SUSEconnect, which ask for confirmation before the product gets registered. So there’s no need to confirm the product license again at install time.

--replacefiles

Install the packages even if they replace files from other, already installed, packages. Default is to treat file conflicts as an error. --download-as-needed disables the fileconflict check because access to all packages filelists is needed in advance in order to perform the check.

-D, --dry-run

Test the update, do not actually install or update any package. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

--best-effort

Do a best effort approach to update. This method does not explicitly select packages with best version and architecture, but instead requests installation of a package with higher version than the installed one and leaves the rest on the dependency solver. This method is always used for packages, and is optional for products and patterns. It is not applicable to patches.

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

This command also accepts the Download-and-install mode options described in the install command description.

list-patches (lp) [options]

List all applicable patches.

This command is similar to zypper list-updates -t patch.

Note that optional arguments of some of the following options must be specified using = instead of a space.

-b, --bugzilla[=#[,...]]

List applicable patches for all Bugzilla issues, or issues whose number matches the given string.

--cve[=#[,...]]

List applicable patches for all CVE issues, or issues whose number matches the given string.

--date YYYY-MM-DD[,...]

List only patches issued up to, but not including, the specified date.

-g, --category category[,...]

List only patches with this category. See section Package Types for a list of commonly used category values.

--severity severity[,...]

List only patches with this severity. See section Package Types for a list of commonly used severity values.

--issue[=string[,...]]

Look for issues whose number, summary, or description matches the specified string. Issues found by number are displayed separately from those found by descriptions. In the latter case, use zypper patch-info patchname to get information about issues the patch fixes.

-a, *--all

By default, only patches that are applicable on your system are listed. This option causes all available released patches to be listed. This option can be combined with all the rest of the list-updates command options.

--with-optional, --without-optional

Whether applicable optional patches should be treated as needed or be excluded. The default is to exclude optional patches.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

patch-check (pchk)

Check for patches. Displays a count of applicable patches and how many of them have the security category.

See also the Exit Codes section for details on exit status of 0, 100, and 101 returned by this command.

--updatestack-only

Check only for patches which affect the package management itself.

--with-optional, --without-optional

Whether applicable optional patches should be treated as needed or be excluded. The default is to exclude optional patches.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Check for patches only in the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

patch [options]

Install all available needed patches.

When updating the affected/vulnerable packages described by a patch, zypper always aims for the latest available version. See section Package Types for more details about how patches operate.

If there are patches that affect the package management itself, those will be installed first and you will be asked to run the patch command again.

This command is similar to zypper update -t patch.

--updatestack-only

Install only patches which affect the package management itself and exit.

--with-update

Additionally try to update all packages not covered by patches. This is basically the same as running zypper update afterwards.

The option is ignored, if the patch command must update the update stack first, thus it can not be combined with the --updatestack-only option.

--with-optional, --without-optional

Whether applicable optional patches should be treated as needed or be excluded. The default is to exclude optional patches.

-b, --bugzilla #[,...]

Select applicable patches for a Bugzilla issue specified by number. Use list-patches --bugzilla command to get a list of applicable patches for specific issues.

--cve #[,...]

Select applicable patches for a MITRE’s CVE issue specified by number. Use list-patches --cve command to get a list of applicable patches for specific issues.

--date YYYY-MM-DD[,...]

Select only patches patches issued up to, but not including, the specified date.

-g, --category category[,...]

Select only patches with this category. Use list-patches --category command to get a list of available patches with a specific category. See section Package Types for a list of commonly used category values.

--severity severity[,...]

Select only patches with this severity. Use list-patches --severity command to get a list of available patches with a specific severity. See section Package Types for a list of commonly used severity values.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

--skip-interactive

This will skip interactive patches, that is, those that need reboot, contain a message, or update a package whose license needs to be confirmed.

--with-interactive

Avoid skipping of interactive patches when in non-interactive mode.

-l, --auto-agree-with-licenses

Automatically say yes to third party license confirmation prompt. By using this option, you choose to agree with licenses of all third-party software this command will install. This option is particularly useful for administrators installing the same set of packages on multiple machines (by an automated process) and have the licenses confirmed before.

--auto-agree-with-product-licenses

Automatically accept product licenses only. This is used by tools like SUSEconnect, which ask for confirmation before the product gets registered. So there’s no need to confirm the product license again at install time.

--replacefiles

Install the packages even if they replace files from other, already installed, packages. Default is to treat file conflicts as an error. --download-as-needed disables the fileconflict check because access to all packages filelists is needed in advance in order to perform the check.

-D, --dry-run

Test the update, do not actually update. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

This command also accepts the Download-and-install mode options described in the install command description.

dist-upgrade (dup) [options]

Perform a distribution upgrade. This command applies the state of (specified) repositories onto the system; upgrades (or even downgrades) installed packages to versions found in repositories, removes packages that are no longer in the repositories and pose a dependency problem for the upgrade, handles package splits and renames, etc.

If no repositories are specified via the --from option, zypper will do a global upgrade with all defined repositories. This global form of dup will also consider unchanged installed packages and re-evaluate their dependencies. This can be a problem if the system contains conflicting repositories, like repositories for two different distribution releases. This often happens if one forgets to remove an older release repository after adding a new one, say openSUSE 13.1 and openSUSE 13.2.

For all repositories which have the distribution version within their URL (like https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.1/repo/oss) using the $releasever variable instead may be helpful (https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/$releasever/repo/oss). The variable is per default substituted by the current distributions version (13.1).

This value can be temporarily overwritten in the current zypper command by using the --releasever global option. Calling zypper --releasever 13.2... will cause these repos to use the new location (https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/oss) without the need to add/remove anything. But you’ll need to use --releasever 13.2 with every zypper command until the distribution upgrade was actually performed. Once the dup is done, $releasever will default to the new distribution version 13.2 and --releasever is no longer needed.

It might be less tedious to persistently set $releasever to the target distribution value, so --releasever is not needed at all. See section Repository Management for more info about variable substitution and the definition of custom variables.

Note: Performing a distribution upgrade will automatically create a solver test case at /var/log/updateTestcase-YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss (the date and time the command was executed).

Note: distribution upgrades in openSUSE are currently only supported between consecutive releases. To upgrade multiple releases, upgrade each consecutive release one at a time. For more details see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade and the openSUSE release notes at http://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes/.

--from alias|name|#|URI

The option can be used multiple times and restricts the upgrade to the specified repositories only. Nevertheless all enabled repositories are visible to the resolver and will be considered to satisfy dependency problems.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI.

Using --repo is discouraged as it currently hides unmentioned repositories from the resolver, leading to inexpertly decisions. This is because packages originally installed from the hidden repos will now be treated as orphaned or dropped. They can be silently removed if involved in a dependency conflict. In the future --repo will become an alias for --from.

-l, --auto-agree-with-licenses

Automatically say yes to third party license confirmation prompt. By using this option, you choose to agree with licenses of all third-party software this command will install. This option is particularly useful for administrators installing the same set of packages on multiple machines (by an automated process) and have the licenses confirmed before.

--auto-agree-with-product-licenses

Automatically accept product licenses only. This is used by tools like SUSEconnect, which ask for confirmation before the product gets registered. So there’s no need to confirm the product license again at install time.

--replacefiles

Install the packages even if they replace files from other, already installed, packages. Default is to treat file conflicts as an error. --download-as-needed disables the fileconflict check because access to all packages filelists is needed in advance in order to perform the check.

-D, --dry-run

Test the upgrade, do not actually install or update any package. If used together with --download-only a meaningful file conflict check can be performed (see section Package File Conflicts).

-y, --no-confirm

Don’t require user interaction. It’s recommended to use the --non-interactive global option instead. Global options are passed before the command (zypper --non-interactive COMMAND ...). Unlike the no-confirm command option, the global option can be used together with any zypper command.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

Solver related options:

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option if you think the dependencies were not solved correctly. When using this option no packages will be installed or removed. Instead a solver test case is written to /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase. You can pack the directory and attach it to your bug report.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution (even an aggressive one) rather than asking.

In order to perform the requested job the solver is allowed to violate any otherwise active policy. This includes the allowance to remove packages but also not to respect even explicitly set policies (by --no-allow-policy or in config files). It is not recommended to use this option in unattended environments.

The allowance to remove dependent packages is the default when removing packages (zypper remove).

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problems and prompt the user to resolve them manually. This is the default except when removing packages (zypper remove).

--solver-focus MODE

Set the solvers general attitude when resolving a job. Valid modes are Job, Installed or Update. See section Package Dependencies for details.

--recommends

Install also recommended packages in addition to the required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

--no-recommends

Do not install recommended packages, but only required ones. The default behavior is determined by [zypp.conf:solver.onlyRequires].

Expert Options:

Don’t use them unless you know you need them.

--allow-downgrade, --no-allow-downgrade

Whether to allow downgrading installed resolvables.

--allow-name-change, --no-allow-name-change

Whether to allow changing the names of installed resolvables. Setting this to no will not replace packages which have been renamed.

--allow-arch-change, --no-allow-arch-change

Whether to allow changing the architecture of installed resolvables.

--allow-vendor-change, --no-allow-vendor-change

Whether to allow changing the vendor of installed resolvables. Setting this to no might be useful if you do not want packages from foreign repos being changed to the distributions version (or vice versa).

This command also accepts the Download-and-install mode options described in the install command description.

Examples:

$ zypper dup --from factory --from packman

Upgrade the system to the latest versions provided by the factory and packman repositories.

Query Commands

search (se) [options] [querystring|capability]...

Search for packages matching any of the given search strings. * and ? wildcard characters can be used within search strings. If the search string is enclosed in /  (e.g. /^k.*e$/) it’s interpreted as a regular expression. See the install command for details about how to specify a capability.

Results of the search are printed in a table with columns Status, Name, Summary and Type of package. In case the query result is empty zypper returns ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_CAP_NOT_FOUND, unless the --ignore-unknown global option is set.

In the detailed view (se -s) all available instances of matching packages are shown; each version in each repository on a separate line, with columns Status, Name, Type, Version, Architecture and Repository. For installed packages Repository shows either a repository that provides exactly the installed version of the package, or, if the exact version is not provided by any known repo, (System Packages) (or @System). Those installed packages not provided by any repo are often denoted as being unwanted, orphaned or dropped.

The Status column can contain the following values:

i+

installed by user request

i

installed automatically (by the resolver, see section Automatically installed packages)

v

a different version is installed

empty

neither of the above cases

!

a patch in needed state

.l

is shown in the 2nd column if the item is locked (see section Package Locks Management)

.P

is shown in the 2nd column if the item is part of a PTF (A program temporary fix which must be explicitly selected and will otherwise not be considered in dependency resolution).

.R

is shown in the 2nd column if the item has been retracted (see patch in section Package Types)

The v status is only shown if the version or the repository matters (see --details or --repo), and the installed instance differs from the one listed in version or repository.

This command accepts the following options:

--match-substrings

Matches for search strings may be partial words (default).

--match-words

Matches for search strings may only be whole words.

-x, --match-exact

Searches for an exact name of the package.

--provides

Search for packages which provide the search strings.

--requires

Search for packages which require the search strings.

--recommends

Search for packages which recommend the search strings.

--suggests

Search for packages which suggest the search strings.

--conflicts

Search for packages conflicting with the search strings.

--obsoletes

Search for packages which obsolete the search strings.

--supplements

Search for packages which supplement the search strings.

--provides-pkg

Search for all packages that provide any of the provides of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--requires-pkg

Search for all packages that require any of the provides of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--recommends-pkg

Search for all packages that recommend any of the provides of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--supplements-pkg

Search for all packages that supplement any of the provides of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--conflicts-pkg

Search for all packages that conflict with any of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--obsoletes-pkg

Search for all packages that obsolete any of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

--suggests-pkg

Search for all packages that suggest any of the provides of the package(s) matched by the input parameters.

-n, --name

Useful together with dependency options, otherwise searching in package name is default.

-f, --file-list

Search in the file list of packages. Note that the full file list is available for installed packages only. For remote packages only an abstract of their file list is available within the metadata (files containing /etc/, /bin/, or /sbin/).

-d, --search-descriptions

Search also in summaries and descriptions.

-C, --case-sensitive

Perform case-sensitive search.

-i, --installed-only

Show only installed packages.

-u, --not-installed-only

Show only packages which are not installed.

The old option name --uninstalled-only is still acceptable, but should be considered deprecated.

-t, --type type

Search only for packages of specified type. See section Package Types for a list of available package types. Multiple --type options are allowed.

See also the type-specific query commands like packages, patterns, etc.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number, or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

--sort-by-name

Sort packages by name (default).

--sort-by-repo

Sort packages by repository, not by name.

-s, --details

Show all available versions of matching packages, each version in each repository on a separate line.

-v, --verbose

Like --details with additional information where the search has matched (useful when searching for dependencies, e.g. --provides).

Examples:

$ zypper se 'yast*'

Search for YaST packages (quote the string to prevent the shell from expanding the wildcard).

$ zypper se -s --match-exact kernel-default

Show all available versions of package kernel-default

$ zypper se -dC --match-words RSI

Look for RSI acronym (case-sensitively), also in summaries and descriptions.

packages (pa) [options] [repository]...

List all available packages or all packages from specified repositories. Similar to zypper search -s -t package.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Just another means to specify repositories.

-i, --installed-only

Show only installed packages.

-u, --not-installed-only

Show only packages which are not installed.

The old option name --uninstalled-only is still acceptable, but should be considered deprecated.

--orphaned

Show packages which are orphaned (without repository).

--suggested

Show packages which are suggested.

--recommended

Show packages which are recommended.

--unneeded

Show packages which are unneeded.

patches (pch) [options] [repository]...

List all available patches from specified repositories, including those not needed. Short for zypper lp -a.

-r, --repo alias|name_|#|URI

Just another means to specify repositories.

patterns (pt) [options] [repository]...

List all available patterns or all patterns from specified repositories. Similar to zypper search -s -t pattern.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Just another means to specify repositories.

-i, --installed-only

Show only installed patterns.

-u, --not-installed-only

Show only patterns which are not installed.

The old option name --uninstalled-only is still acceptable, but should be considered deprecated.

products (pd) [options] [repository]...

List all available products or all products from specified repositories. Similar to zypper search -s -t product, but shows also the type of the product (base, add-on).

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Just another means to specify repositories.

-i, --installed-only

Show only installed products.

-u, --not-installed-only

Show only products which are not installed.

The old option name --uninstalled-only is still acceptable, but should be considered deprecated.

--xmlfwd tag

XML output only: Literally forward the XML tag, if it is found in an installed products .prod-file (in /etc/products.d).

Using this option, for each installed product an <xmlfwd> node will be created inside the <product> output node of the product.

Tag defines the name (or /-separated path) of a xml-tag inside an installed products .prod-file. If the tag is present inside the products .prod-file, the tag and it’s content is literally forwarded into the products <xmlfwd> output node.

The option may be specified multiple times.

Examples:

$ zypper -x pd --xmlfwd name --xmlfwd register/target

what-provides (wp) capability

List all packages providing the specified capability (case-insensitive search). See also the install command for info about specifying capabilities.

The command line is automatically transformed into the corresponding search command:

$ zypper what-provides 'zypper>1.6'

$ zypper search --provides --match-exact 'zypper>1.6'

For a case-sensitive search call

$ zypper search --provides --match-exact --case-sensitive 'zypper>1.6'

Repository Management

Zypper is able to work with YaST, RPM-MD (yum) software repositories, and plain directories containing .rpm files (no symlinks).

Repositories are primarily identified using their URI or alias. Alias serves as a shorthand for the long URI or name of the repository. The name of the repository should briefly describe the repository and is shown to the user in tables and messages. The name is not required, and if not known, the alias is shown instead. The alias is required and uniquely identifies the repository on the system.

The alias, name, URI, or the number from zypper repos list can be used to specify a repository as an argument of various zypper commands and options like refresh, --repo, or --from.

Apart from the above, repositories have several other properties which can be set using the commands described in this section below, or by manually editing the repository definition files (.repo files, see section Files).

Variable substitution

You can use the following variables within a .repo or .service files name and URI values:

$arch

Use this variable to refer to the system’s CPU architecture.

$basearch

Use this variable to refer to the base architecture of the system. For example, iX86 machines have a base architecture of i386, while AMD64 and Intel64 have x86_64.

$releasever, $releasever_major, $releasever_minor

Use this variable to refer to the version of your openSUSE or SUSE Linux. The value is obtained from the /product/version XML-node in /etc/products.d/baseproduct.

This is useful for related repositories like packman (http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/$releasever), which shall always fit the installed distribution, even after a distribution upgrade.

To help performing a distribution upgrade, the value of $releasever can be persistently set to a user defined value by creating a custom variable with that name (see below). This way you can easily switch all repositories using $releasever to the new version (provided the server layouts did not change and new repos are already available).

For a single zypper command the value of $releasever can be temporarily overwritten by using the --releasever global option.

In addition $releasever_major will be set to the leading portion up to (but not including) the 1st dot; $releasever_minor to the trailing portion after the 1st dot. If there’s no dot in $releasever, $releasever_major is the same as $releasever and $releasever_minor is empty.

Custom Variables

A custom repository variable is defined by creating a file in /etc/zypp/vars.d. The variable name equals the file name. The files first line (up to but not including the newline character) defines the variables value.  Valid variable(file) names consist of alphanumeric chars and underscore only.

This is how you can set a custom variable, e.g. $releasever to a value of 99.0:

echo "99.0" >/etc/zypp/vars.d/releasever

To remove the custom variable, simply delete its file in /etc/zypp/vars.d:

rm /etc/zypp/vars.d/releasever

To check where you already use $releasever call:

zypper --releasever @--HERE--@ lr -u

Remember to protect the $ when using these variables on a shell command line:

zypper ar -f http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/\$releasever packman

If a variable is followed by an alphanumeric character or underscore it needs to be enclosed in {}:

zypper ar -f http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/\${releasever}_packman

Bash style definition of default ${variable:-word} and alternate ${variable:+word} values:

SLE-${releasever_major}${releasever_minor:+-SP-$releasever_minor}

NOTE:

Variable substitution within an URIs authority is limited to host and port. Bash style definition of default and alternate values is not supported. No variables can be used in an URIs scheme, user and password.

Supported URI formats

scheme:@]host[:port]]/path[?query][#fragment]

Special characters occurring in URI components (like a '@' in a password) must be %-encoded ('%40').

CD or DVD drive

Optionally with devices list for probing.

  • cd:///
    dvd:/subdir?devices=/dev/sr0,/dev/sr1
FTP/HTTP/HTTPS directory tree

The ftp URL scheme supports absolute and relative paths to the default ftp server directory (RFC1738, Section 3.2.2). To use an absolute path, you have to prepend the path with an additional slash, what results in a /%2f combination (second / encoded to %2f) at the begin of the URL path. This is important, especially in user authenticated ftp, where the users home is usually the default directory of the server (except when the server chroots into the users home directory).

Explicit proxy settings may be passed via optional parameters proxy, proxyport, proxyuser and proxypass.

HTTP authentication methods to use can be defined as comma separated list via optional parameter auth. Valid methods are e.g. basic, digest, ntlm, negotiate. Note, that this list depends on the list of methods supported by the curl library.

SSL verification behavior can be changed using the ssl_verify option (this should be used with care). Valid values are yes (the secure default), host, peer or no. Host just checks that the "Common Name" field or a "Subject Alternate Name" field in the servers certificate matches the host name in the URL. Peer just verifies whether the certificate provided by the server is authentic against the chain of digital signatures found in ssl_capath. No performs no checks at all. Yes is the secure default, performing host and peer check.

For SSL client certificate authentication use the options ssl_clientcert to define the path to the ssl client certificate and ssl_clientkey to define the path to the SSL client key. Use ssl_capath to change the directory holding the CA certificates (default is /etc/ssl/certs).

  • ftp://user:pass@server/path/to/media/dir
    ftp://user:pass@server/%2fhome/user/path/to/media/dir
    http://user:pass@server/path
    https://user:pass@server/path?proxy=foo&proxyuser=me&proxypass=pw
    https://server/path?ssl_clientcert=/entitlement/1234.pem&ssl_clientkey=/entitlement/1234-key.pem
Disk volume (partition)

Mandatory device parameter specifying the name of the block device to mount. The name of the optional filesystem defaults to "auto".

  • hd:/subdir?device=/dev/sda1&filesystem=reiserfs
Local directory tree
  • dir:/directory/name
Media in an ISO image (loopback mounted)

Mandatory iso parameter specifying the name of the iso file. Optional url parameter specifying the URL to the directory containing the iso file. Optional mnt parameter specifying the preferred attach point for the source media url. Optional filesystem name of the filesystem used in the iso file. Defaults to "auto".

  • iso:/?iso=CD1.iso&url=nfs://server/path/to/media
    iso:/?iso=CD1.iso&url=hd:/?device=/dev/hda
    iso:/subdir?iso=DVD1.iso&url=nfs://nfs-server/directory&mnt=/nfs/attach/point&filesystem=udf
NFS exported directory tree

To use NFSv4 either use schema tnfsv4:// or pass an optional parameter type=nfs4. Additional mountoptions can be passed as comma separated list. Defaults to "ro".

  • nfs://nfs-server/exported/path
    nfs://nfs-server/exported/path?mountoptions=ro&type=nfs4
    nfs4://nfs-server/exported/path?mountoptions=ro
CIFS/SMB directory tree

There is no difference between cifs and smb scheme (any more). In both cases the cifs filesystem is used. Additional mountoptions can be passed as comma separated list. Defaults to "ro,guest". Specify "noguest" to turn off "guest". This is necessary if Samba is configured to reject guest connections.

Optional workgroup or domain parameter set the name of the workgroup. As alternative to passing username:password in the URI authority the parameters user and pass can be used.

  • smb://servername/share/path/on/the/share
    cifs://usern:passw@servername/share/path/on/the/share?mountoptions=ro,noguest
    cifs://usern:passw@servername/share/path/on/the/share?workgroup=mygroup
    cifs://servername/share/path/on/the/share?user=usern&pass=passw
OpenSUSE Build Build Service (OBS) repositories

Zypper also accepts special URIs identifying openSUSE Build Service (OBS) repositories in the addrepo command. These URIs have the form of obs://project/[platform], where project is the name of the OBS project and platform is the target platform (OS) for which the repository is intended.

If platform is omitted, openSUSE_$releasever is used unless a value for obs.platform is defined in zypper.conf. If you are following openSUSE_Factory or openSUSE_Tumbleweed you may need to set these as your default platform. But we can only guess, how the directory containing the repository that fits your distribution is named on the server. In case of doubt you need to look up the right URL in a browser.

  • obs://zypp:Head/
    obs://zypp:Head/openSUSE_Factory
    obs://zypp:Head/openSUSE_Factory_Staging_Gcc49_standard

Commands

addrepo (ar) [options] URI alias

addrepo (ar) [options] FILE*.repo*

Add a new repository specified by URI and assign specified alias to it or specify URI to a .repo file.

Newly added repositories have auto-refresh disabled by default (except for repositories imported from a .repo, having the auto-refresh enabled). To enable auto-refresh use addrepo -f, or the --refresh option of the modifyrepo command.

Also, this command does not automatically refresh the newly added repositories. The repositories will get refreshed when used for the first time, or you can use the refresh command after finishing your modifications with *repo commands.

-r, --repo file.repo

Read URI and alias from specified .repo file

-c, --check

Probe given URI.

-C, --no-check

Don’t probe URI, probe later during refresh.

-n, --name name

Specify descriptive name for the repository.

-e, --enable

Enable the repository (the default).

-d, --disable

Add the repository as disabled. Repositories are added as enabled by default.

-f, --refresh

Enable autorefresh of the repository. The autorefresh is disabled by default when adding new repositories.

-F, --no-refresh

Disable auto-refresh for the repository.

-p, --priority [1-2147483647]|0

Set the priority of the repository. Priority of 1 is the highest, and 2147483647 is the lowest. -p 0 will set the priority back to the default (99). Packages from repositories with higher priority will be used even if there are better versions available in a repository with a lower priority.

-k, --keep-packages

Enable RPM files caching for the repository.

-K, --no-keep-packages

Disable RPM files caching.

-g, --gpgcheck

Enable GPG check for this repository. The behavior as described in section GPG checks.

--gpgcheck-strict

Enable strict GPG check for this repository. Even packages from signed repositories need a valid GPG signature and using unsigned packages must be confirmed.

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned

Short hand for --gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-repo --gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-package

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-repo

Enable GPG check but allow the repository metadata to be unsigned.

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-package

Enable GPG check but allow installing unsigned packages from this repository.

-G, --no-gpgcheck

Disable GPG check for this repository.

Disabling GPG checks is not recommended. Signing data enables the recipient to verify that no modifications occurred after the data were signed. Accepting data with no, wrong or unknown signature can lead to a corrupted system and in extreme cases even to a system compromise.

--default-gpgcheck

Use the global GPG check settings defined in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf. This is the default.

Unless you have modified your zypp.conf settings, this is the same as --gpgcheck, the behavior as described in section GPG checks.

Examples:

$ zypper ar -c -n 'Packman 11.1 repo' http://packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/11.1 packman

Add a HTTP repository, probe it, name it Packman 11.1 repo, and use packman as alias.

$ zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/zypp:/svn/openSUSE_Factory/zypp:svn.repo

$ zypper ar myreposbackup.repo

Add repositories from a .repo file.

removerepo (rr) [options] alias|name|#|URI...

Delete repositories specified by aliases, names, numbers, URIs or one of the aggregate options.

--loose-auth

Ignore user authentication data in the URI

--loose-query

Ignore query string in the URI

-a, --all

Apply changes to all repositories.

-l, --local

Apply changes to all local repositories.

-t, --remote

Apply changes to all remote repositories (http/https/ftp).

-m, --medium-type type

Apply changes to repositories of specified type. The type corresponds to the repository URI scheme identifier like http, dvd, etc. You can find complete list of valid types at http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Libzypp_URIs.

repos (lr) [options] [repo]...

List all defined repositories or show detailed information about those specified as arguments

The following data can be printed for each repository found on the system: # (repository number), Alias (unique identifier), Name, Enabled (whether the repository is enabled), GPG Check (whether GPG check for repository metadata (r) and/or downloaded rpm packages (p) is enabled), Refresh (whether auto-refresh is enabled for the repository), Priority, Type (repository meta-data type: rpm-md, yast2, plaindir). Which of the data is shown is determined by command line options listed below and the main.repoListColumns setting from zypper.conf. By default, #, Alias, Name, Enabled, GPG Check and Refresh is shown.

Repository number is a unique identifier of the repository in current set of repositories. If you add, remove or change a repository, the numbers may change. Keep that in mind when using the numbers with the repository handling commands. On the other hand, using the alias instead of the number is always safe.

To show detailed information about specific repositories, specify them as arguments, either by alias, name, number from simple zypper lr, or by URI; e.g. fB zypper lr factory, or zypper lr 2.

-e, --export FILE.repo|-

This option causes zypper to write repository definition of all defined repositories into a single file in repo file format. If - is specified instead of a file name, the repositories will be written to the standard output.

-a, --alias

Add alias column to the output.

-n, --name

Add name column to the output.

-u, --uri

Add base URI column to the output.

-p, --priority

Add repository priority column to the output.

-r, --refresh

Add the autorefresh column to the output.

-d, --details

Show more information like URI, priority, type, etc.

-E, --show-enabled-only

Show enabled repositories only.

-U, --sort-by-uri

Add base URI column and sort the list it.

-P, --sort-by-priority

Add repository priority column and sort the list by it.

-A, --sort-by-alias

Sort the list by alias.

-N, --sort-by-name

Sort the list by name.

Examples:

$ zypper repos -e myreposbackup.repo

Backup your repository setup:

$ zypper lr -pu

List repositories with their URIs and priorities:

renamerepo (nr) alias|name|#|URI new-alias

Assign new alias to the repository specified by alias, name, number, or URI.

Examples:

$ zypper nr 8 myrepo

Rename repository number 8 to myrepo (useful if the repo has some dreadful alias which is not usable on the command line).

modifyrepo (mr) options alias|name|#|URI...

modifyrepo (mr) options --all|--remote|--local|--medium-type

Modify properties of repositories specified by alias, name, number, or URI or one of the aggregate options.

-n, --name name

Set a descriptive name for the repository.

-e, --enable

Enable the repository.

-d, --disable

Disable the repository.

-f, --refresh (legacy: -r)

Enable auto-refresh for the repository.

-F, --no-refresh (legacy: -R)

Disable auto-refresh for the repository.

-p, --priority [1-2147483647]|0

Set the priority of the repository. Priority of 1 is the highest, and 2147483647 is the lowest. -p 0 will set the priority back to the default (99). Packages from repositories with higher priority will be used even if there are better versions available in a repository with a lower priority.

-k, --keep-packages

Enable RPM files caching.

-K, --no-keep-packages

Disable RPM files caching.

-g, --gpgcheck

Enable GPG check for this repository. The behavior as described in section GPG checks.

--gpgcheck-strict

Enable strict GPG check for this repository. Even packages from signed repositories need a valid GPG signature and using unsigned packages must be confirmed.

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned

Short hand for --gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-repo --gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-package

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-repo

Enable GPG check but allow the repository metadata to be unsigned.

--gpgcheck-allow-unsigned-package

Enable GPG check but allow installing unsigned packages from this repository.

-G, --no-gpgcheck

Disable GPG check for this repository.

Disabling GPG checks is not recommended. Signing data enables the recipient to verify that no modifications occurred after the data were signed. Accepting data with no, wrong or unknown signature can lead to a corrupted system and in extreme cases even to a system compromise.

--default-gpgcheck

Use the global GPG check settings defined in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf. This is the default.

Unless you have modified your zypp.conf settings, this is the same as --gpgcheck, the behavior as described in section GPG checks.

-a, --all

Apply changes to all repositories.

-l, --local

Apply changes to all local repositories.

-t, --remote

Apply changes to all remote repositories (http/https/ftp).

-m, --medium-type type

Apply changes to repositories of specified type. The type corresponds to the repository URI scheme identifier like http, dvd, etc. You can find complete list of valid types at http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Libzypp_URIs.

Examples:

$ zypper mr -kt

Enable keeping of packages for all remote repositories.

$ zypper mr -er updates

Enable repository updates and switch on autorefresh for the repo.

$ zypper mr -da

Disable all repositories.

refresh (ref) [alias|name|#|URI]...

Refresh repositories specified by their alias, name, number, or URI. If no repositories are specified, all enabled repositories will be refreshed.

-f, --force

Force a complete refresh of specified repositories. This option will cause both the download of raw metadata and parsing of the metadata to be forced even if everything indicates a refresh is not needed.

-b, --force-build

Force only reparsing of cached metadata and rebuilding of the database. Raw metadata download will not be forced.

-d, --force-download

Force only download of current copy of repository metadata. Parsing and rebuild of the database will not be forced.

-B, --build-only

Only parse the metadata and build the database, don’t download raw metadata into the cache. This will enable you to repair damaged database from cached data without accessing network at all.

-D, --download-only

Only download the raw metadata, don’t parse it or build the database.

-s, --services

Refresh also services before refreshing repositories.

clean (cc) [options] [alias|name|#|URI]...

Clean the local caches for all known or specified repositories. By default, only caches of downloaded packages are cleaned.

-m,  --metadata

Clean repository metadata cache instead of package cache.

-M,  --raw-metadata

Clean repository raw metadata cache instead of package cache.

-a,  --all

Clean both repository metadata and package caches.

Service Management

The services, addservice, removeservice, modifyservice, and refresh-services commands serve for manipulating services. A service is specified by its URI and needs to have a unique alias defined (among both services and repositories).

Standalone repositories (not belonging to any service) are treated like services, too. The ls command will list them, ms command will modify them, etc. Repository specific options, like --keep-packages are not available here, though. You can use repository handling commands to manipulate them.

addservice (as) [options] URI alias

Adds a service specified by URI to the system. The alias must be unique and serves to identify the service. If a service with the same alias and URI already exists, the command behaves like modifyservice and updates the settings accordingly.

Newly added services are not refreshed automatically. Use the refresh-services command to refresh them. Zypper does not access the service URI when adding the service, so the type of the services is unknown until it is refreshed.

-n,  --name name

Specify descriptive name for the service.

-e,  --enable

Enable the service (this is the default).

-d,  --disable

Add the service as disabled.

-f,  --refresh

Enable auto-refresh of the service.

-F,  --no-refresh

Disable auto-refresh of the service.

removeservice (rs) [options] alias|name|#|URI...

Remove specified service from the system. Removing a service will also remove of all of its repositories.

--loose-auth

Ignore user authentication data in the URI.

--loose-query

Ignore query string in the URI.

modifyservice (ms) options alias|name|#|URI

modifyservice (ms) options --all|--remote|--local|--medium-type

Modify properties of specified services.

Common Options

These options are common to all types of services and repositories.

-n, --name name

Set a descriptive name for the service.

-e, --enable

Enable a disabled service.

-d, --disable

Disable the service (but don’t remove it).

-f, --refresh  (legacy: -r)

Enable auto-refresh of the service.

-F, --no-refresh  (legacy: -R)

Disable auto-refresh of the service.

-a, --all

Apply changes to all services.

-l, --local

Apply changes to all local services.

-t, --remote

Apply changes to all remote services.

-m, --medium-type type

Apply changes to services of specified type.

RIS Service Specific Options

These options are ignored by services other than Repository Index Services.

-i, --ar-to-enable alias

Schedule an RIS service repository to be enabled at next service refresh.

-I, --ar-to-disable alias

Schedule an RIS service repository to be disabled at next service refresh.

-j, --rr-to-enable alias

Remove a RIS service repository to enable.

-J, --rr-to-disable alias

Remove a RIS service repository to disable.

-k, --cl-to-enable

Clear the list of RIS repositories to enable.

-K, --cl-to-disable

Clear the list of RIS repositories to disable.

services (ls) [options]

List services defined on the system.

-u, --uri

Show also base URI of repositories.

-p, --priority

Show also repository priority.

-d, --details

Show more information like URI, priority, type.

-r, --with-repos

Show also repositories belonging to the services.

-P, --sort-by-priority

Sort the list by repository priority.

-E, --show-enabled-only

Show enabled services only. If used together with --with-repos a disabled services owning (manually) enabled repositories are shown as well.

-U, --sort-by-uri

Sort the list by URI.

-N, --sort-by-name

Sort the list by name.

refresh-services (refs) [options] alias|name|#|URI...

Refreshing a service means executing the service’s special task.

RIS services add, remove, or modify repositories on your system based on current content of the repository index. A differing enabled/disabled state caused by manually calling modify-repo on a service repository however will not be reverted unless the --restore-status option is used, or the repository index explicitly requests the change.

Services only manage defined repositories, they do not refresh them. To refresh also repositories, use --with-repos option or the refresh command.

-f, --force

Force a complete refresh of specified services. This option will cause both the download of raw metadata and parsing of the metadata to be forced even if everything indicates a refresh is not needed.

-r, --with-repos

Refresh also the service repositories.

-R, --restore-status

Also restore service repositories enabled/disabled state to the repository index default. Useful after you manually changed some service repositories enabled state.

Package Locks Management

Package locks serve the purpose of preventing changes to the set of installed packages on the system. Locks are stored as queries in /etc/zypp/locks file (see also locks(5)). Packages matching a query are then forbidden to change their installed status; an installed package can’t be removed or upgraded, not installed package can’t be installed. When requesting to install, upgrade or remove such locked package, you will get a dependency problem dialog.

A lock-spec is formed by "NAME [OP EDITION]", where NAME may also be a glob pattern using * and ? wildcard characters. Non-package types may to have their kind-string prepended (e.g. patch:foo or product:baa) or use the commands --type option.

The basic form will lock all editions of the matching items. You can optionally restrict the lock to match a specific edition or edition range using =, <, <=, >, >= or != followed by the edition.

Note

If you use blanks around the operator you need to quote the string or escape the blanks according to the rules of the shell you are using.

locks (ll)

List currently active package locks.

-m, --matches

Show the number of resolvables matched by each lock. This option requires loading the repositories.

-s, --solvables

List the resolvables matched by each lock. This option requires loading the repositories.

addlock (al) [options] lock-spec...

Add a package lock. Specify packages to lock as explained above.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Restrict the lock to the specified repository.

-t, --type type

Lock only packages of specified type (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

-m, --comment comment

Add a comment for package lock.

removelock (rl) [options] lock-number|lock-spec...

Remove a package lock. Specify the lock to remove by its number obtained with zypper locks or by the lock-spec.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Restrict the lock to the specified repository.

-t, --type type

Restrict the lock to packages of specified type (default: package). See section Package Types for list of available package types.

cleanlocks (cl)

Remove unused locks.

This command looks for locks that do not currently (with regard to repositories used) lock any package and for each such lock it asks user whether to remove it.

Locale Management

These commands give information about requested locales and the possibility to manage those. A locale is defined by a language code. For many packages there are locale dependent packages available which provide translations or dictionaries. To get these installed, the locale for the desired language must be marked as requested by the package manager library.

locales (lloc) [OPTIONS] [LOCALE] ...

List requested locales. Called without argument, lists the locales which are already marked as requested. Specifying certain locale(s) prints information only for this(these).

-a, --all

List all available locales.

-p, --packages

Show corresponding packages.

addlocale (aloc) [OPTIONS] <LOCALE> ...

Add specified locale(s) to the list of requested locales..

-n, --no-packages

Do not install corresponding packages.

removelocale (rloc) [OPTIONS] <LOCALE> ...

Remove specified locale(s) from the list of requested locales..

-n, --no-packages

Do not remove corresponding packages.

Examples:

$ zypper locales

List requested locales.

$ zypper locales --packages de en

Get the lists of packages which are available for de and en (exact match).

$ zypper locales en_

Get all locales with lang code en that have their own country code, excluding the fallback en.

$ zypper locales en*

Get all locales with lang code en with or without country code.

$ zypper aloc --packages de_CH

Request de_CH and install language dependent packages.

Other Commands

versioncmp (vcmp) version1 version2

Compare the versions supplied as arguments and tell whether version1 is older or newer than version2 or the two version strings match.

The default output is in human-friendly form. If --terse global option is used, the result is an integer number, negative/positive if version1 is older/newer than version2, zero if they match.

-m, --match

Takes missing release number as any release.

For example:

$ zypper vcmp -m 0.15.3 0.15.3-2

0.15.3 matches 0.15.3-2

$ zypper vcmp 0.15.3 0.15.3-2

0.15.3 is older than 0.15.3-2

targetos (tos)

Shows the ID string of the target operating system. The string is defined by the XPath:/product/register/target entry in (current-rootdir)/etc/products.d/baseproduct.

If the baseproduct does not provide this entry, or if no baseproduct is installed at all, the value is empty if the --terse global option is used.

In not-terse mode the distribution label is shown instead of an empty value, if a baseproduct is installed.

-l, --label

Show the baseproducts distribution and short label instead.

licenses

Prints a report about licenses and EULA's of installed packages to standard output.

First, a list of all packages and their licenses and/or EULAs is shown. This is followed by a summary, including the total number of installed packages, the number of installed packages with EULAs that required a confirmation from the user. Since the EULAs are not stored on the system and can only be read from repository metadata, the summary includes also the number of installed packages that have their counterpart in repositories. The report ends with a list of all licenses uses by the installed packages.

This command can be useful for companies redistributing a custom distribution (like appliances) to figure out what licenses they are bound by.

download [OPTIONS]

Download rpms specified on the commandline to a local directory.

Per default packages are downloaded to the libzypp package cache (/var/cache/zypp/packages; for non-root users $XDG_CACHE_HOME/zypp/packages), but this can be changed by using the global --pkg-cache-dir option.

Parsable XML-output produced by zypper --xmlout will include a <download-result> node for each package zypper tried to download. Upon success the location of the downloaded package is found in the path attribute of the <localfile> subnode (xpath: download-result/localpath@path):

        <download-result>
          <solvable>
            <kind>package</kind>
            <name>zypper</name>
            <edition epoch="0" version="1.9.17" release="26.1"/>
            <arch>x86_64</arch>
            <repository name="repo-oss-update (13.1)" alias="openSUSE:repo-oss-update"/>
          </solvable>
          <localfile path="/var/cache/zypp/pac.../zypper-1.9.17-26.1.x86_64.rpm"/>
        </download-result>

--all-matches

	Download all versions matching the commandline arguments. Otherwise only the best version of each matching package is downloaded.
--dry-run

Don’t download any package, just report what would be done.

-r, --repo alias|name|#|URI

Work only with the repository specified by the alias, name, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

--from alias|name|#|URI

Select packages from the specified repository only. This option can be used multiple times.

source-download [OPTIONS]

Download source rpms for all installed packages to a local directory.

-d, --directory dir

Download all source rpms to this directory. Default is /var/cache/zypper/source-download.

--delete

Delete extraneous source rpms in the local directory. This is the default.

--no-delete

Do not delete extraneous source rpms.

--status

Don’t download any source rpms, but show which source rpms are missing or extraneous.

ps [OPTIONS]

After each upgrade or removal of packages, there may be running processes on the system which continue to use meanwhile deleted files. zypper ps lists all processes using deleted files, together with the corresponding files, and a service name hint, in case it’s a known service. This gives a hint which services may need to be restarted after an update. Usually programs which continue to use deleted shared libraries. The list contains the following information:

PID

ID of the process

PPID

ID of the parent process

UID

ID of the user running the process

Login

Login name of the user running the process

Command

Command used to execute the process

Service

Service name, if command is associated with a system service

Files

The list of the deleted files

-s, --short

Create a short table not showing the deleted files. Given twice, show only processes which are associated with a system service. Given three times, list the associated system service names only.

--print format

For each associated system service print format on the standard output, followed by a newline. Any %s directive in format is replaced by the system service name.

-d, --debugFile filename

Output a file with all proc entries that make it into the final set of used open files. This can be submitted as additional information in a bug report.

Examples:

$ zypper ps -ss

Show only processes associated with a system service.

$ zypper ps -sss

Short for zypper ps --print "%s"; list services which might need a restart.

$ zypper ps --print "systemctl status %s"

Let zypper print the commands to retrieve status information for services which might need a restart.

needs-rebooting

Checks if the reboot-needed flag was set by a previous update or install of a core library or service.

The reboot-needed flag is set if a package that provides installhint(reboot-needed) is updated or installed. Additionally there is a predefined list (/etc/zypp/needreboot) of well-known packages which cause the reboot-needed flag being set unconditionally. The exit code ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_REBOOT_NEEDED indicates that a reboot is suggested, otherwise the exit code is set to ZYPPER_EXIT_OK.

It is recommended for scripts to use this command to test whether a system reboot is suggested. Use --quiet to suppress the normal output.

Subcommands

subcommand

Lists available subcommands in /usr/libexec/zypper/commands and from elsewhere on your $PATH. See section Subcommands for details.

Global Options

-h, --help

Help. If a command is specified together with --help option, command specific help is displayed.

-V, --version

Print zypper version number and exit.

-c, --config file

Use the specified zypper config file instead of the default zypper.conf. Other command line options specified together with --config and having their counterpart in the zypper config file are still preferred.

The order of preference with --config is as follows:

  1. Command line options
  2. --config file
  3. [/etc/zypp/zypp.conf] (system-wide defaults for all libzypp based applications)

Note

Use and location of the system-wide /etc/zypp/zypp.conf can not be changed this way. It’s mentioned here just because some zypper command line options allow one to overwrite system-wide defaults defined in zypp.conf.

See also Files section for more information.

-v, --verbose

Increase verbosity. For debugging output specify this option twice.

-q, --quiet

Suppress normal output. Brief (esp. result notification) messages and error messages will still be printed, though. If used together with conflicting --verbose option, the --verbose option takes preference.

--color, --no-color

Whether to use colors in output if tty supports it. For details see the [color] section in zypper.conf.

-A, --no-abbrev

Do not abbreviate text in tables. By default zypper will try to abbreviate texts in some columns so that the table fits the width of the screen. If you need to see the whole text, use this option.

-t, --terse

Terse output for machine consumption. Implies --no-abbrev and --no-color.

-s, --table-style integer

Choose among different predefined line drawing character sets to use when drawing a table. The table style is identified by an integer number. Style 0 is the default, styles 1-9 use combinations of different box drawing characters whose shape may depend on the font the terminal is using. Style 10 separates columns by a colon and style 11 draws no lines at all.

-n, --non-interactive

Switches to non-interactive mode. In this mode zypper doesn’t ask user to type answers to various prompts, but uses default answers automatically. Those default answers also depend on other options like --no-gpg-checks or --ignore-unknown.

--non-interactive-include-reboot-patches

In non-interactive mode do not skip patches which have the rebootSuggested-flag set. Otherwise these patches are considered to be interactive, like patches including a licenses or some message to confirm. NOTE: This option does not turn on non-interactive mode.

-x, --xmlout

Switches to XML output. This option is useful for scripts or graphical frontends using zypper.

-i, --ignore-unknown

Ignore unknown packages. This option is useful for scripts, because when installing in --non-interactive mode zypper expects each command line argument to match at least one known package. Unknown names or globbing expressions with no match are treated as an error unless this option is used.

For search and info commands the option makes zypper return ZYPPER_EXIT_OK rather than ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_CAP_NOT_FOUND if the query did not produce at least one match.

-D, --reposd-dir dir

Use the specified directory to look for the repository definition (.repo) files. The default value is /etc/zypp/repos.d.

-C, --cache-dir dir

Use an alternative root directory for all caches. The default value is /var/cache/zypp.

--raw-cache-dir dir

Use the specified directory for storing raw copies of repository metadata files. The default value is /var/cache/zypp/raw.

--solv-cache-dir dir

Use the specified directory to store the repository metadata cache database files (solv files). The default value is /var/cache/zypp/solv.

--pkg-cache-dir dir

	Use the specified directory for storing rpm packages downloaded from repositories (see addrepo --keep-packages). The default value is /var/cache/zypp/packages. + Packages are stored in subdirectories named after the repositories alias and using the same path as on the repositories medium.
--userdata string

User data is expected to be a simple string without special chars or embedded newlines and may serve as transaction id. It will be written to all install history log entries created throughout this specific zypper call. It will also be passed on to zypp plugins executed during commit. This will enable e.g. a btrfs plugin to tag created snapshots with this string. For zypper itself this string has no special meaning.

Repository Options:

--no-gpg-checks

Ignore GPG check failures and continue. If a GPG issue occurs when using this option zypper prints and logs a warning and automatically continues without interrupting the operation. Use this option with caution, as you can easily overlook security problems by using it. (see section GPG checks)

--gpg-auto-import-keys

If new repository signing key is found, do not ask what to do; trust and import it automatically. This option causes that the new key is imported also in non-interactive mode, where it would otherwise got rejected.

-p, --plus-repo URI

Use an additional repository for this operation. The repository aliased tmp# and named by the specified URI will be added for this operation and removed at the end. You can specify this option multiple times.

--plus-content tag

Additionally use disabled repositories denoted by tag for this operation. If tag matches a repositories alias, name or URL, or is a keyword defined in the repositories metadata, the repository will be temporarily enabled for this operation. The repository will then be refreshed and used according to the commands rules. You can specify this option multiple times.

If a disabled repositories metadata are not available in the local cache, they will be downloaded to scan for matching keywords. Otherwise the keyword scan will use the metadata available in the local cache. Only if used together with the refresh command, a keyword scan will refresh all disabled repositories.

To refresh all disabled repositories metadata:

zypper --plus-content '' ref

To include a disabled repository repo-debug in a search:

zypper --plus-content repo-debug search ...

To search only in a disabled repository repo-debug:

zypper --plus-content repo-debug search -r repo-debug ...

To enable all repos providing the debug keyword:

zypper in --plus-content debug some -debuginfo or -debugsource package

--disable-repositories

Do not read metadata from repositories. This option will prevent loading of packages from repositories, thus making zypper work only with the installed packages (if --disable-system-resolvables was not specified).

--no-refresh

Do not auto-refresh repositories (ignore the auto-refresh setting). Useful to save time when doing operations like search, if there is not a need to have a completely up to date metadata.

--no-cd

Ignore CD/DVD repositories. When this option is specified, zypper acts as if the CD/DVD repositories were not defined at all.

--no-remote

Ignore remote repositories like http, ftp, smb and similar. This makes using zypper easier when being offline. When this option is specified, zypper acts as if the remote repositories were not defined at all.

--releasever version

For the current command set the value of the $releasever repository variable to version. This can be used to switch to new distribution repositories when performing a distribution upgrade. See the dist-upgrade (dup) command and section Repository Management for more details about using the $releasever repository variable.

To check where you already use $releasever call:

zypper --releasever @--HERE--@ lr -u

Target Options:

-R, --root dir

Operates on a different root directory. This option influences the location of the repos.d directory and the metadata cache directory and also causes rpm to be run with the --root option to do the actual installation or removal of packages. See also the Files section.

--installroot dir

Behaves like --root but shares the repositories with the host system.

--disable-system-resolvables

This option serves mainly for testing purposes. It will cause zypper to act as if there were no packages installed in the system. Use with caution as you can damage your system using this option.

Subcommands

Zypper subcommands are inspired by git(1). Subcommands are standalone executables that live in the zypper_execdir (/usr/libexec/zypper/commands). For subcommands zypper provides a wrapper that knows where the subcommands live, and runs them by passing command options and arguments to them. If a subcommand is not found in the zypper_execdir, the wrapper will look in the rest of your $PATH for it. Thus, it’s possible to write local zypper extensions that don’t live in system space. This can be disabled by setting "subcommand.seachSubcommandInPath" to "no" in the zypper.conf.

This is how to add your own subcommand zypper mytask:

You can use the built-in zypper subcommand command to get a list of all subcommands in zypper_execdir and from elsewhere on your $PATH.

Using zypper global-options together with subcommands, as well as executing subcommands in zypper shell is currently not supported.

Files

/etc/zypp/zypper.conf,  $HOME/.zypper.conf

Global (system-wide) and user’s configuration file for zypper. These files are read when zypper starts up and --config option is not used.

User’s settings are preferred over global settings. Similarly, command line options override the settings in either of these files. To sum it up, the order of preference is as follows (from highest to lowest):

  1. Command line options
  2. $HOME/.zypper.conf
  3. /etc/zypp/zypper.conf
  4. [/etc/zypp/zypp.conf] (system-wide defaults for all libzypp based applications)

See the comments in /etc/zypp/zypper.conf for a list and description of available options.

Note

The system-wide /etc/zypp/zypp.conf is mentioned here just because some zypper command line options allow one to overwrite system-wide defaults defined there. zypp.conf and zypper.conf have different content and serve different purpose.

/etc/zypp/zypp.conf

ZYpp configuration file affecting all libzypp based applications. See the comments in the file for description of configurable properties. Many locations of files and directories listed in this section are configurable via zypp.conf. The location for this file itself can be redefined only by setting $ZYPP_CONF in the environment.

/etc/zypp/locks

File with package lock definitions. The package lock commands (locks, addlock, removelock, etc.) should be used to manipulate this file.

This file is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/etc/zypp/repos.d

Directory containing repository definition (*.repo) files. You can use the Repository Management commands to manipulate these files, or you can edit them yourself. In either case, after doing the modifications, executing *zypper refresh* is strongly recommended.

You can use the --reposd-dir global option to use an alternative directory for this purpose or the --root option to make this directory relative to the specified root directory.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/etc/zypp/services.d

Directory containing service definition (*.service) files. You can use the Service Management Commands to manipulate these files, or you can edit them yourself. Running *zypper refs* is recommended after modifications have been done.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/usr/libexec/zypper/commands

System directory containing zypper extensions (see section Subcommands)

/var/cache/zypp/raw

Directory for storing raw metadata contained in repositories. Use the --raw-cache-dir global option to use an alternative directory for this purpose or the --root option to make this directory relative to the specified root directory.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/var/cache/zypp/solv

Directory containing preparsed metadata in form of solv files.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/var/cache/zypp/packages

If keeppackages property is set for a repository (see the modifyrepo command), all the RPM file downloaded during installation will be kept here. Packages are stored in subdirectories named after their repositories alias. Subdirectories of removed or otherwise unknown repositories are cleaned automatically. This auto-cleanup can be prevented by creating a file named .no_auto_prune in the pkg-cache directory. See also the clean command for cleaning these cache directories.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/var/log/zypper.log

Zypper log file. It should be attached to all bugreports. (see also zypper-log(8)).

/var/log/zypper.solverTestCase

Solver testcase created by using the --debug-solver option.

/var/log/updateTestcase-YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss

Solver testcase auto created when performing a zypper dup.

/var/log/zypp/history

Installation history log.

~/.zypper_history

Command history for the zypper shell (see the shell command).

/etc/zypp/needreboot

File with a list of packages that will set the reboot-needed flag when installed or upgraded.

/etc/zypp/needreboot.d

Directory that can be used to define packages that trigger the reboot-needed flag by adding additional files containing the required package names.

Exit Codes

There are several exit codes defined for zypper built-in commands for use e.g. within scripts. These codes are defined in header file src/zypper-main.h found in zypper source package. Codes below 100 denote an error, codes above 100 provide a specific information, 0 represents a normal successful run. Following is a list of these codes with descriptions:

0 - ZYPPER_EXIT_OK

Successful run of zypper with no special info.

1 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_BUG

Unexpected situation occurred, probably caused by a bug.

2 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_SYNTAX

zypper was invoked with an invalid command or option, or a bad syntax.

3 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_INVALID_ARGS

Some of provided arguments were invalid. E.g. an invalid URI was provided to the addrepo command.

4 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_ZYPP

A problem is reported by ZYPP library.

5 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_PRIVILEGES

User invoking zypper has insufficient privileges for specified operation.

6 - ZYPPER_EXIT_NO_REPOS

No repositories are defined.

7 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ZYPP_LOCKED

The ZYPP library is locked, e.g. packagekit is running.

8 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_COMMIT

An error occurred during installation or removal of packages. You may run zypper verify to repair any dependency problems.

100 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_UPDATE_NEEDED

Returned by the patch-check command if there are patches available for installation.

101 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_SEC_UPDATE_NEEDED

Returned by the patch-check command if there are security patches available for installation.

102 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_REBOOT_NEEDED

Returned by the needs-rebooting command, if a system reboot is suggested.

Legacy: Returned after the successful installation of a patch which requires reboot of computer. This legacy behavior is kept, but it’s drawback is that it covers patches only, no packages. The new needs-rebooting command is the recommended way to test whether a system reboot is suggested.

103 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_RESTART_NEEDED

Returned after a successful installation of a patch which requires restart of the package manager itself. This means that one of patches to be installed affects the package manager itself and the command used (e.g. zypper update) needs to be executed once again to install any remaining patches.

104 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_CAP_NOT_FOUND

Returned by the install and the remove command in case any of the arguments does not match any of the available (or installed) package names or other capabilities. In search and info commands it indicates that no match was found. See also the --ignore-unknown global option.

105 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ON_SIGNAL

Returned upon exiting after receiving a SIGINT or SIGTERM.

106 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_REPOS_SKIPPED

Some repository had to be disabled temporarily because it failed to refresh. You should check your repository configuration (e.g. zypper ref -f).

107 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_RPM_SCRIPT_FAILED

Installation basically succeeded, but some of the packages %post install scripts returned an error. These packages were successfully unpacked to disk and are registered in the rpm database, but due to the failed install script they may not work as expected. The failed scripts output might reveal what actually went wrong. Any scripts output is also logged to /var/log/zypp/history.

Zypper subcommands (see section Subcommands) may return different codes which should be described in the commands man page. Call zypper help subcommand to see the subcommands man page if one is provided.

Homepage

https://github.com/openSUSE/zypper

Authors

The zypper project was started by Martin Vidner, Jan Kupec, Michael Andres, Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett, Josef Reidinger and Stanislav Visnovsky. Many people have later contributed to it.

See Also

locks(5), zypper-log(8), YaST2(8)

Referenced By

locks(5), salt(7), systemd-nspawn(1), zypp-CheckAccessDeleted(1), zypper-log(8), zypp-NameReqPrv(1), zypp-refresh(8).

2024-03-04 SUSE Linux ZYPPER