Manpage of zypper

zypper

Section: System Tools (8)
Updated: 0.11.9
Index Return to Main Contents

SYNTAX

zypper [--global-options] <command> [--command-options] [command-arguments]

zypper help [command]

DESCRIPTION

zypper is a command-line interface to ZYpp system management library. 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.

Repositories

Libzypp works with package metadata, that 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.

Resource Identfiers (URI)

To specify locations of repositories or other resources (RPM files, .repo files) you can use any type of URIs supported by libzypp. See http://en.opensuse.org/Libzypp/URI for a complete list and usage examples.

In addition to these URIs you can use plain directory and file paths in which case zypper automatically treats them as dir:/path URIs.

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reading metadata from the database if the auto-refresh is enabled for the repository and the metada is reported to be out of date.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 If the files differ, the repository is out of date and will be refreshed.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.

Package Types

zypper works with several types of resource objects, called resolvables. A resolvable is a package, patch, pattern, or a product.

package - an ordinary RPM package
patch - update of one or more packages. A patch can include special scripts and messages to be run or shown during installation of the update.
pattern - group of packages required or recommended to install some functionality
product - group of packages which are necessary to install a product

Throughout this manual we will refer to resolvables simply as packages and to resolvable types as packages types.

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.

General Commands

help [command]

Shows help texts. If invoked without any argument (just 'zypper' or 'zypperhelp'), zypper displays global help text which lists all available global options and commands (except those provided only for compatibility with rug).

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 be invoked in any of the following ways:

$ zypper help [command]
$ 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 (opensSUSE 11.0), but still, you're welcome to experiment with it.

Package Management Commands

info (if) <name> ...

Displays full info for the specified packages.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

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

-t, --type <type>

Type of package (default: package). Currently supported package types for the info command are: package, patch, pattern, product.

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.

Capability is: NAME, or "NAME[OP<EDITION>]", where OP is <, <=, =, >=, 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.

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 download the files into its cache directory (/var/cache/zypper/RPMS), add this directory as a temporary plaindir repository and mark the respective packages for installation.

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

$ zypper install vim -emacs
$ zypper remove emacs +vim

will both install vim and remove emacs. Note that if you choose to use '-' with the first package you specify, you need to write '--' before it to prevent it's interpretation as a command option.

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

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

Install packages only from the repository specified by the alias, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

-t, --type <type>

Type of package (default: package). See the beginning of this subsection for the list of available package types.

-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)

-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 administators installing the same set of packages on multiple machines (by an automated process) and have the licenses confirmed before.

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. Use this option, if you think the dependencies were not solved all right and attach the resulting /var/log/zypper.solverTestCase directory to your bug report. To use this option, simply add it to the problematic install or remove command.

-R, --no-force-resolution

Do not force the solver to find a solution. Instead, report dependency problem and prompt the user to resolve it manually.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution, even if it would mean removing all packages with unfulfilled requirements.

The default behavior is 'force' in the interactive mode and 'no-force' in the non-interactive mode. If this option is specified, it takes the preference.

-D, --dry-run

Test the installation, do not actually install any package. This option will add the --test option to the rpm commands run by the install command.

source-install (si) <name> ...

Install specified source packages and their build dependencies.

This command will try to find the newest available versions of the source packages and use rpm -i to install them.

-d, --build-deps-only

Install only build dependencies of specified packages.

-D, --no-build-deps

Don't install build dependencies.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

Install packages only from specified repositories. This option can be used multiple times.

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.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

Use only specified repositories to install missing packages.

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. See the install command for details.

install-new-recommends (inr) [options]

Install newly added packages recommended by already installed ones. This can typically be used to install language packages recently added to repositories or drivers for newly added hardware.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

Use only specified repositories to install packages.

-D, --dry-run

Test the installation, do not actually install anything.

--debug-solver

Create solver test case for debugging. See the install command for details.

list-updates (lu) [options]

List available updates.

-t, --type <type>

Type of package (default: patch). See the beginning of this subsection for the list of available package types.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>

List only updates from the repository specified by the alias, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

Patch Management

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.

-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>: Check for patches only in the repository specified by the alias, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.
patches (pch): List patches. Lists all patches that are available, including installed and not applicable ones.
-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>: Check for patches only in the repository specified by the alias, number or URI. This option can be used multiple times.

Repository Management

zypper is able to work with YaST, YUM, and aptrpm repositories, ZENworks 7 Linux Management, ZENworks 6.6.x Linux Management servers, as well as local files.

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 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 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. See also METADATA REFRESH POLICY section for more details.

-r, --repo <file.repo>

Read URI and alias from specified .repo file

-t, --type <type>

Type of repository (yast2, rpm-md, or plaindir). There are several aliases defined for these types: yast2 - susetags, yast, YaST, YaST2, YAST; rpm-md - repomd, rpmmd, yum, YUM; plaindir - Plaindir.

-d, --disable

Add the repository as disabled.

-c, --check

Probe given URI.

-C, --nocheck

Don't probe URI, probe later during refresh.

-n, --name

Specify descriptive name for the repository.

-k, --keep-packages

Enable RPM files caching for the repository.

-K, --no-keep-packages

Disable RPM files caching.

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

Delete repositories specified by aliases, numbers or URIs.

--loose-auth

Ignore user authentication data in the URI

--loose-query

Ignore query string in the URI

repos (lr) [options]

List all defined repositories.

The following data are printed for each repository found: # (repository number), Enabled (whether the repository is enabled), Refresh (whether auto-refresh is enabled for the repository), Type (rpm-md, yast2, plaindir), Alias (shorthand for Name), and Name. Other columns can be added using the options listed below.

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.

-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.

-u, --uri

Add base URI column to the output.

-p, --priority

Add repository priority column to the output.

-d, --details

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

-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.

renamerepo (nr) <alias|#|URI> <new-alias>

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

modifyrepo (mr) <options> <alias|#|URI>

Modify properties of the repository specified by alias, number or URI.

-e, --enable

Enable the repository.

-d, --disable

Disable the repository.

-r, --refresh

Enable auto-refresh for the repository.

-R, --no-refresh

Disable auto-refresh for the repository.

-p, --priority <positive-integer>

Set priority of the repository. Priority of 1 is the highest, the higher the number the lower the priority. Default priority is 99. Packages from repositories with higher priority will be preferred even in case there is a higher installable version available in the repository with a lower priority.

-n, --name

Set a descriptive name for the repository.

-k, --keep-packages

Enable RPM files caching.

-K, --no-keep-packages

Disable RPM files caching.

-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/Libzypp/URI.

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

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

See also METADATA REFRESH POLICY section for more details.

-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.

clean [alias|#|URI] ...

Clean the local caches for all known or specified repositories. By default,
onlycachesofdownloadedpackagesarecleaned.

-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.

Package Locks Management

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

locks (ll): List currently active package locks.
addlock (al) [options] <package-name>: Add a package lock. Specify packages to lock by exact name or by a glob pattern using '*' and '?' wildcard characters.
-r, --repo <alias|#|URI>: Restrict the lock to the specified repository.
-t, --type <type>: Type of resolvable (package, patch, pattern, product). Default: package.
removelock (rl) <lock-number|package-name>: Remove specified package lock. Specify the lock to remove by its number obtained with 'zypper locks' or by the package name.

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.
-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.
-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. Currently not used and provided only for compatibility with rug.
-s, --table-style: Specifies table style to use. Table style is identified by an integer number. TODO
-r, --rug-compatible: Turns on rug compatibility. See section COMPATIBILITY WITH RUG for details.
-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. The behaviour of this option is somewhat different than that of options like '--yes', since zypper can answer different answers to different questions. The answers also depend on other options like '--no-gpg-checks'.
-x, --xmlout: Switches to XML output. This option is useful for scripts or graphical frontends using zypper. For detailed information about this feature, see http://en.opensuse.org/Zypper/XML_Output.
-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 directory to look for the repository metadata cache database files (solv files). The default value is /var/cache/zypp/solv.
--raw-cache-dir <dir>: Use the specified directory for storing raw copies of repository metadata files. The default value is /var/cache/zypp/raw.

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 causion, as you can easily overlook security problems by using it.
-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.
--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.

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. Note that the ZYpp lock is still created in the original system, as well as temporary files. See also the FILES section.
--disable-system-resolvables: This option servers mainly for testing purposes. It will cause zypper to act as if there were no packages installed in the system. Use with causion as you can damage your system using this option.

FILES

/etc/zypp/repos.d: Directory containing repository definition (*.repo) files. You can use the repo 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.
/etc/zypp/zypp.conf: ZYpp configuration file.
/etc/zypp/locks: File with package lock definitions, see locks(5) manual page for details.
/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.
/var/cache/zypp/solv: Directory containing preparsed metadata in form of solv files.
/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. See also the clean command for cleaning these cache directories.
~/.zypper_history: Command history for the shell.

EXIT CODES

There are several exit codes defined for zypper for use e.g. within scripts. These codes are defined in header file src/zypper-main.h found in zypper source package. Codes from interval (1-5) denote an error, numbers (100-105) provide a specific information, 0 represents a normal successful run. Following is a list of these codes with descriptions.

0 - ZYPPER_EXIT_OK: Successfull run of zypper with no special info.
1 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_BUG: Unexpected situation occured, 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 reported by ZYPP library. E.g. another instance of ZYPP is running.
5 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ERR_PRIVILEGES: User invoking zypper has insufficient privileges for specified operation.
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 after a successfull installation of a patch which requires reboot of computer.
103 - ZYPPER_EXIT_INF_RESTART_NEEDED: Returned after a successfull 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.
105 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ON_SIGNAL: Returned upon exiting after receiving a SIGINT or SIGTERM.

COMPATIBILITY WITH RUG

zypper is designed to be compatible with rug, which is a command-line interface to the ZENworks Linux Management (ZLM) agent. Compared to rug, zypper does not need the ZLM daemon to run, and is intented to provide more and improved functionality. Following is a list of zypper-rug command aliases, supported rug command line options, and compatibility notes. See also compatibility notes in descriptions of zypper commands.

To enable rug-compatible behavior, use the -r or --rug-compatible global option with each command.

Service Management Commands

ZENworks distinguishes services and catalogs. A service is added by URI and contains one or more catalogs. Libzypp does not have this distinction (yet) but for compatibility it is able to use the same command and option names (service-add, --catalog) as rug.

Currently, a Repository in zypper is a synonym for both Service and Catalog in ZLM.

rug service-add (sa): zypper addrepo (ar)
rug service-delete (sd): zypper removerepo (rr)
rug service-list (sl): zypper repos (lr)
: zypperdoesn'tinclude'Enabled'and'Refresh'columnsandprintsrug's'Status'columnwithvalues"Active"or"Disabled"instead.

Package Management Commands

rug install (in)

zypper install (in)

-y, --no-confirm: Don't require user interaction. This option is implemented using zypper's non-interactive mode.
--agree-to-third-party-licenses: This option is an alias to zypper's --auto-agree-with-licenses option.
-R, --force-resolution <on|off>: This option is not available in rug and zypper uses the 'force-resolution' solver mode by default when running in rug-compatible mode. However, it is possible to turn the forcing of resolution off using this option even in rug-compatible mode.

rug remove (rm)

zypper remove (rm)

-y, --no-confirm: Don't require user interaction. This option is implemented using zypper's non-interactive mode.
-R, --force-resolution <on|off>: This option is not available in rug and zypper uses the 'force-resolution' solver mode by default when running in rug-compatible mode. However, it is possible to turn the forcing of resolution off using this option even in rug-compatible mode.

rug verify (ve)

zypper verify (ve)

-y, --no-confirm: Don't require user interaction. This option is implemented using zypper's non-interactive mode.

rug update (up) [catalog] ...

zypper update (up) [package] ...

Zypper interprets the update command arguments as repository identifiers in rug-compatibilty mode. The update operation is restricted to the specified repositories.

-t, --type: This option defaults to 'package' in rug compatibility mode. Zypper's default is 'patch'.
-y, --no-confirm: Don't require user interaction. This option is implemented using zypper's non-interactive mode.
--agree-to-third-party-licenses: This option is an alias to zypper's --auto-agree-with-licenses option.
-R, --force-resolution <on|off>: This option is not available in rug and zypper uses the 'force-resolution' solver mode by default when running in rug-compatible mode. However, it is possible to turn the forcing of resolution off using this option even in rug-compatible mode.
-d, --downloade-only: This option has currently no effect.
--category: This option has currently no effect.

rug search (se)

zypper search (se)

--sort-by-catalog

Sort packages by catalog, not by name. This option is an alias to zypper's --sort-by-repo option.

Patch Management Commands

rug patch-info: zypper info -t patch

Pattern Management Commands

rug pattern-info: zypper info -t pattern

Product Management Commands

rug product-info: zypper info -t product

Other Compatibility Notes

-c, --catalog <catalog>: This option is an alias to zypper's --repo <alias> and it will restrict the operation of commands like search, install, etc to the repository specified by the alias.
-N, --dry-run: Zypper uses -D shorthand for this option, but -N is provided for the sake of compatibility. Zypper (libzypp) implements this option by passing the --test option to rpm. The option is used in install, remove, update, dist-upgrade (not available in rug), and verify commands.