Provided by: libdnf-dev_0.75.0-1_amd64 
NAME
hawkey - Hawkey Documentation
Contents:
API CHANGES
Contents
• API Changes
• Introduction
• Changes in 0.2.10
• Python bindings
• Changes in 0.2.11
• Python bindings
• Changes in 0.3.0
• Core
• Query: key for reponame filtering
• Repo initialization
• Query installs obsoleted
• Python bindings
• Query: filtering by repository with the reponame key
• Package: removed methods for direct EVR comparison
• Repo initialization
• Query installs obsoleted
• Changes in 0.3.1
• Query: hy_query_filter_package_in() takes a new parameter
• Removed hy_query_filter_obsoleting()
• Changes in 0.3.2
• Removed hy_packagelist_of_obsoletes.
• Changes in 0.3.3
• Renamed hy_package_get_nvra to hy_package_get_nevra
• Changes in 0.3.4
• Python bindings
• pkg.__repr__() is more verbose now
• Changes in 0.3.8
• Core
• New parameter rootdir to hy_sack_create()
• Python bindings
• Forms recognized by Subject are no longer an instance-scope setting
• Changes in 0.3.9
• Core
• Flags for hy_sack_create
• hy_sack_get_cache_path is renamed to hy_sack_get_cache_dir
• Python bindings
• make_cache_dir for Sack's constructor
• cache_path property of Sack renamed to cache_dir
• Changes in 0.3.11
• Core
• hy_goal_package_obsoletes() removed, hy_goal_list_obsoleted_by_package() provided instead
• hy_goal_list_erasures() does not report obsoletes
• Python bindings
• Changes in 0.4.5
• Core
• Query: hy_query_filter_latest() now filter latest packages ignoring architecture
• Python bindings
• Changes in 0.4.13
• Core
• Deprecated hy_package_get_update_*
• Changes in 0.4.15
• Core
• hy_goal_write_debugdata() takes a directory parameter
• Python bindings
• Goal.write_debugdata() takes a directory parameter
• Package: string attributes are represented by Unicode object
• Changes in 0.4.18
• Core
• Deprecated hy_advisory_get_filenames
• Python bindings
• Repo() does not accept cost keyword argument
• Deprecated _hawkey.Advisory.filenames
• Changes in 0.4.19
• Python bindings
• Advisory attributes in Unicode
• Changes in 0.5.2
• Core
• hy_chksum_str returns NULL
• Changes in 0.5.3
• Core
• New parameter logfile to hy_sack_create()
• Deprecated hy_create_cmdline_repo()
• Python bindings
• New optional parameter logfile to Sack constructor
• cache_path property of Sack renamed to cache_dir
• Deprecated Sack method create_cmdline_repo()
• Changes in 0.5.4
• Python bindings
• Goal: install() takes a new optional parameter
• Changes in 0.5.5
• Core
• Renamed hy_sack_load_yum_repo to hy_sack_load_repo
• Python bindings
• Sack method load_yum_repo has been renamed to Sack.load_repo() <#hawkey.Sack.load_repo>
• Changes in 0.5.7
• Python bindings
• Package: file attribute is represented by list of Unicode objects
• Sack: list_arches method returns list of Unicode objects
• Changes in 0.5.9
• Core
• Deprecated hy_goal_req_has_distupgrade(), hy_goal_req_has_erase() and hy_goal_req_has_upgrade()
functions
• Python bindings
• Deprecated Goal methods Goal.req_has_distupgrade_all(), Goal.req_has_erase() and
Goal.req_has_upgrade_all()
• Changes in 0.6.2
• Core
• Python bindings
• Advisory: The filename property is removed along with the C API
Introduction
This document describes the API changes the library users should be aware of before upgrading to each
respective version. It is our plan to have the amount of changes requiring changing the client code go to
a minimum after the library hits the 1.0.0 version.
Depracated API items (classes, methods, etc.) are designated as such in this document. The first release
where support for such items can be dropped entirely must be issued at least five months after the issue
of the release that announced the deprecation and at the same time have, relatively to the deprecating
release, either:
• a higher major version number, or
• a higher minor version number, or
• a patchlevel number that is by at least five greater.
These criteria are likely to tighten in the future as hawkey matures.
Actual changes in the API are then announced in this document as well. ABI changes including changes in
functions' parameter counts or types or removal of public symbols from libhawkey imply an increase in the
library's SONAME version.
Changes in 0.2.10
Python bindings
Query.filter() now returns a new instance of Query, the same as the original with the new filtering
applied. This allows for greater flexibility handling the Query objects and resembles the way QuerySets
behave in Django.
In practice the following code will stop working as expected:
q = hawkey.Query(self.sack)
q.filter(name__eq="flying")
# processing the query ...
It needs to be changed to:
q = hawkey.Query(self.sack)
q = q.filter(name__eq="flying")
# processing the query ...
The original semantics is now available via the Query.filterm() method, so the following will also work:
q = hawkey.Query(self.sack)
q.filterm(name__eq="flying")
# processing the query ...
Changes in 0.2.11
Python bindings
In Python's Package instances accessors for string attributes now return None instead of the empty string
if the attribute is missing (for instance a pkg.sourcerpm now returns None if pkg is a source rpm package
already).
This change is towards a more conventional Python practice. Also, this leaves the empty string return
value free to be used when it is actually the case.
Changes in 0.3.0
Core
Query: key for reponame filtering
The Query key value used for filtering by the repo name is HY_PKG_REPONAME now (was HY_PKG_REPO). The old
value was misleading.
Repo initialization
hy_repo_create() for Repo object initialization now needs to be passed a name of the repository.
Query installs obsoleted
All Goal methods accepting Query as the means of selecting packages, such as hy_goal_install_query() have
been replaced with their Selector counterparts. Selector structures have been introduced for the
particular purpose of specifying a package that best matches the given criteria and at the same time is
suitable for installation. For a discussion of this decision see Selectors are not Queries <#
rationale-selectors>.
Python bindings
Query: filtering by repository with the reponame key
Similar change happened in Python, the following constructs:
q = q.filter(repo="updates")
need to be changed to:
q = q.filter(reponame="updates")
The old version of this didn't allow using the same string to both construct the query and dynamically
get the reponame attribute from the returned packages (used e.g. in DNF to search by user-specified
criteria).
Package: removed methods for direct EVR comparison
The following will no longer work:
if pkg.evr_eq(some_other_pkg):
...
Instead use the result of pkg.evr_cmp, for instance:
if pkg.evr_cmp(some_other_pkg) == 0:
...
This function compares only the EVR part of a package, not the name. Since it rarely make sense to
compare versions of packages of different names, the following is suggested:
if pkg == some_other_pkg:
...
Repo initialization
All instantiations of hawkey.Repo <#hawkey.Repo> now must be given the name of the Repo. The following
will now fail:
r = hawkey.Repo()
r.name = "fedora"
Use this instead:
r = hawkey.Repo("fedora")
Query installs obsoleted
See Query installs obsoleted in the C section. In Python Queries will no longer work as goal target
specifiers, the following will fail:
q = hawkey.Query(sack)
q.filter(name="gimp")
goal.install(query=q)
Instead use:
sltr = hawkey.Selector(sack)
sltr.set(name="gimp")
goal.install(select=sltr)
Or a convenience notation:
goal.install(name="gimp")
Changes in 0.3.1
Query: hy_query_filter_package_in() takes a new parameter
keyname parameter was added to the function signature. The new parameter allows filtering by a specific
relation to the resulting packages, for instance:
hy_query_filter_package_in(q, HY_PKG_OBSOLETES, HY_EQ, pset)
only leaves the packages obsoleting a package in pset a part of the result.
Removed hy_query_filter_obsoleting()
The new version of hy_query_filter_package_in() handles this now, see above.
In Python, the following is no longer supported:
q = query.filter(obsoleting=1)
The equivalent new syntax is:
installed = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(reponame=SYSTEM_REPO_NAME)
q = query.filter(obsoletes=installed)
Changes in 0.3.2
Removed hy_packagelist_of_obsoletes.
The function was not systematic. Same result is achieved by obtaining obsoleting reldeps from a package
and then trying to find the installed packages that provide it. In Python:
q = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(reponame=SYSTEM_REPO_NAME, provides=pkg.obsoletes)
Changes in 0.3.3
Renamed hy_package_get_nvra to hy_package_get_nevra
The old name was by error, the functionality has not changed: this function has always returned the full
NEVRA, skipping the epoch part when it's 0.
Changes in 0.3.4
Python bindings
pkg.__repr__() is more verbose now
Previously, repr(pkg) would yield for instance <_hawkey.Package object, id: 5>. Now more complete
information is present, including the package's NEVRA and repository: <hawkey.Package object id 5,
foo-2-9\.noarch, @System>.
Also notice that the representation now mentions the final hawkey.Package type, not _hawkey.Package. Note
that these are currently the same.
Changes in 0.3.8
Core
New parameter rootdir to hy_sack_create()
hy_sack_create() now accepts third argument, rootdir. This can be used to tell Hawkey that we are
intending to do transactions in a changeroot, not in the current root. It effectively makes use of the
RPM database found under rootdir. To make your code compile in 0.3.8 without changing functionality,
change:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch);
to:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch, NULL);
Python bindings
Forms recognized by Subject are no longer an instance-scope setting
It became necessary to differentiate between the default forms used by subject.nevra_possibilities() and
subject.nevra_possibilities_real(). Therefore there is little sense in setting the default form for an
entire Subject instance. The following code:
subj = hawkey.Subject("input", form=hawkey.FORM_NEVRA)
result = list(subj.nevra_possibilities())
is thus replaced by:
subj = hawkey.Subject("input")
result = list(subj.nevra_possibilities(form=hawkey.FORM_NEVRA))
Changes in 0.3.9
Core
Flags for hy_sack_create
hy_sack_create() now accepts fourth argument, flags, introduced to modify the sack behavior with boolean
flags. Currently only one flag is supported, HY_MAKE_CACHE_DIR, which causes the cache directory to be
created if it doesn't exist yet. To preserve the previous behavior, change the following:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch, rootdir);
into:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch, rootdir, HY_MAKE_CACHE_DIR);
hy_sack_get_cache_path is renamed to hy_sack_get_cache_dir
Update your code by mechanically replacing the name.
Python bindings
make_cache_dir for Sack's constructor
A new sack by default no longer automatically creates the cache directory. To get the old behavior,
append make_cache_dir=True to the Sack.__init__() <#hawkey.Sack.__init__> arguments, that is change the
following:
sack = hawkey.Sack(...)
to:
sack = hawkey.Sack(..., make_cache_dir=True)
cache_path property of Sack renamed to cache_dir
Reflects the similar change in C API.
Changes in 0.3.11
Core
hy_goal_package_obsoletes() removed, hy_goal_list_obsoleted_by_package() provided instead
hy_goal_package_obsoletes() was flawed in that it only returned a single obsoleted package (in general,
package can obsolete arbitrary number of packages and upgrade a package of the same name which is also
reported as an obsolete). Use hy_goal_list_obsoleted_by_package() instead, to see the complete set of
packages that inclusion of the given package in an RPM transaction will cause to be removed.
hy_goal_list_erasures() does not report obsoletes
In other words, hy_goal_list_erasures() and hy_goal_list_obsoleted() return disjoint sets.
Python bindings
Directly reflecting the core changes. In particular, instead of:
obsoleted_pkg = goal.package_obsoletes(pkg)
use:
obsoleted = goal.obsoleted_by_package(pkg) # list
obsoleted_pkg = obsoleted[0]
Changes in 0.4.5
Core
Query: hy_query_filter_latest() now filter latest packages ignoring architecture
For old function behavior use new function hy_query_filter_latest_per_arch()
Python bindings
In Python's Query option latest in Query.filter() now filter only the latest packages ignoring
architecture. The original semantics for filtering latest packages for each arch is now available via
latest_per_arch option.
For example there are these packages in sack:
glibc-2.17-4.fc19.x86_64
glibc-2.16-24.fc18.x86_64
glibc-2.16-24.fc18.i686
>>> q = hawkey.Query(self.sack).filter(name="glibc")
>>> map(str, q.filter(latest=True))
['glibc-2.17-4.fc19.x86_64']
>>> map(str, q.filter(latest_per_arch=True))
['glibc-2.17-4.fc19.x86_64', 'glibc-2.16-24.fc18.i686']
Changes in 0.4.13
Core
Deprecated hy_package_get_update_*
The functions were deprecated because there can be multiple advisories referring to a single package.
Please use the new function hy_package_get_advisories() which returns all these advisories. New functions
hy_advisory_get_* provide the data retrieved by the deprecated functions.
The only exception is the hy_package_get_update_severity() which will be dropped without any replacement.
However advisory types and severity levels are distinguished from now and the type is accessible via
hy_advisory_get_type(). Thus enum HyUpdateSeverity was also deprecated. A new HyAdvisoryType should be
used instead.
The old functions will be dropped after 2014-07-07.
Changes in 0.4.15
Core
hy_goal_write_debugdata() takes a directory parameter
hy_goal_write_debugdata() has a new const char *dir argument to communicate the target directory for the
debugging data. The old call:
hy_goal_write_debugdata(goal);
should be changed to achieve the same behavior to:
hy_goal_write_debugdata(goal, "./debugdata");
Python bindings
Goal.write_debugdata() takes a directory parameter
Analogous to core changes.
Package: string attributes are represented by Unicode object
Attributes baseurl, location, sourcerpm, version, release, name, arch, description, evr, license,
packager, reponame, summary and url of Package object return Unicode string.
Changes in 0.4.18
Core
Deprecated hy_advisory_get_filenames
The function was deprecated because we need more information about packages listed in an advisory than
just file names. Please use the new function hy_advisory_get_packages() in combination with
hy_advisorypkg_get_string() to obtain the data originally provided by the deprecated function.
The old function will be dropped after 2014-10-15 AND no sooner than in 0.4.21.
Python bindings
Repo() does not accept cost keyword argument
Instead of:
r = hawkey.Repo('name', cost=30)
use:
r = hawkey.Repo('name')
r.cost = 30
Also previously when no cost was given it defaulted to 1000. Now the default is 0. Both these aspects
were present by mistake and the new interface is consistent with the C library.
Deprecated _hawkey.Advisory.filenames
The attribute was deprecated because the underlying C function was also deprecated. Please use the new
attribute packages and the attribute filename of the returned objects to obtain the data originally
provided by the deprecated attribute.
The old attribute will be dropped after 2014-10-15 AND no sooner than in 0.4.21.
Changes in 0.4.19
Python bindings
Advisory attributes in Unicode
All string attributes of Advisory and AdvisoryRef objects (except the deprecated filenames attribute) are
Unicode objects now.
Changes in 0.5.2
Core
hy_chksum_str returns NULL
Previously, the function hy_chksum_str would cause a segmentation fault when it was used with incorrect
type value. Now it correctly returns NULL if type parameter does not correspond to any of expected
values.
Changes in 0.5.3
Core
New parameter logfile to hy_sack_create()
hy_sack_create() now accepts fifth argument, logfile to customize log file path. If NULL parameter as
logfile is given, then all debug records are written to hawkey.log in cachedir. To make your code compile
in 0.5.3 without changing functionality, change:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch, rootdir, 0);
to:
HySack sack = hy_sack_create(cachedir, arch, rootdir, NULL, 0);
Deprecated hy_create_cmdline_repo()
The function will be removed since hy_add_cmdline_package creates cmdline repository automatically.
The function will be dropped after 2015-06-23 AND no sooner than in 0.5.8.
Python bindings
New optional parameter logfile to Sack constructor
This addition lets user specify log file path from Sack.__init__() <#hawkey.Sack.__init__>
cache_path property of Sack renamed to cache_dir
This change was already announced but it actually never happened.
Deprecated Sack method create_cmdline_repo()
The method will be removed since Sack.add_cmdline_package() <#hawkey.Sack.add_cmdline_package> creates
cmdline repository automatically.
The method will be dropped after 2015-06-23 AND no sooner than in 0.5.8.
Changes in 0.5.4
Python bindings
Goal: install() takes a new optional parameter
If the optional parameter is set to True, hawkey silently skips packages that can not be installed.
Changes in 0.5.5
Core
Renamed hy_sack_load_yum_repo to hy_sack_load_repo
Hawkey is package manager agnostic and the yum phrase could be misleading.
The function will be dropped after 2015-10-27 AND no sooner than in 0.5.8.
Python bindings
Sack method load_yum_repo has been renamed to Sack.load_repo() <#hawkey.Sack.load_repo>
Hawkey is package manager agnostic and the yum phrase could be misleading.
The method will be dropped after 2015-10-27 AND no sooner than in 0.5.8.
Changes in 0.5.7
Python bindings
Package: file attribute is represented by list of Unicode objects
Sack: list_arches method returns list of Unicode objects
Changes in 0.5.9
Core
Deprecated hy_goal_req_has_distupgrade(), hy_goal_req_has_erase() and hy_goal_req_has_upgrade() functions
To make your code compile in 0.5.9 without changing functionality, change:
hy_goal_req_has_distupgrade_all(goal)
hy_goal_req_has_erase(goal)
hy_goal_req_has_upgrade_all(goal)
to:
hy_goal_has_actions(goal, HY_DISTUPGRADE_ALL)
hy_goal_has_actions(goal, HY_ERASE)
hy_goal_has_actions(goal, HY_UPGRADE_ALL)
respectively
Python bindings
Deprecated Goal methods Goal.req_has_distupgrade_all(), Goal.req_has_erase() and Goal.req_has_upgrade_all()
To make your code compatible with hawkey 0.5.9 without changing functionality, change:
goal.req_has_distupgrade_all()
goal.req_has_erase()
goal.req_has_upgrade_all()
to:
goal.actions & hawkey.DISTUPGRADE_ALL
goal.actions & hawkey.ERASE
goal.actions & hawkey.UPGRADE_ALL
respectively
Changes in 0.6.2
Core
The hy_advisory_get_filenames() API call, the corresponding Python property filenames of class Advisory
are removed. Instead, iterate over hy_advisory_get_packages() with hy_advisorypkg_get_string() and
HY_ADVISORYPKG_FILENAME. No known hawkey API consumers were using this call.
Hawkey now has a dependency on GLib. Aside from the above hy_advisory_get_filenames() call, the Python
API is fully preserved. The C API has minor changes, but the goal is to avoid causing a significant
amount of porting work for existing consumers.
The hy_package_get_files API call now returns a char **, allocated via g_malloc. Free with g_strfreev.
The HyStringArray type is removed, as nothing now uses it.
HyPackageList is now just a GPtrArray, though the existing API is converted into wrappers. Notably, this
means you can now use g_ptr_array_unref().
Python bindings
Aside from the one change below, the Python bindings should be unaffected by the C API changes.
Advisory: The filename property is removed along with the C API
FAQ
Contents
• FAQ
• Getting Started
• How do I build it?
• Are there examples using hawkey?
• Using Hawkey
• How do I obtain the repo metadata files to feed to Hawkey?
• Why is a tool to do the downloads not integrated into Hawkey?
Getting Started
How do I build it?
See the README <https://github.com/akozumpl/hawkey/tree/master/README.rst>.
Are there examples using hawkey?
Yes, look at:
• unit tests <https://github.com/akozumpl/hawkey/tree/master/tests>
• The Hawkey Testing Hack <https://github.com/akozumpl/hawkey/blob/master/src/hth.c>
• a more complex example is DNF <https://github.com/akozumpl/dnf/>, the Yum fork using hawkey for
backend.
Using Hawkey
How do I obtain the repo metadata files to feed to Hawkey?
It is entirely up to you. Hawkey does not provide any means to do this automatically, for instance from
your /etc/yum.repos.d configuration. Use or build tools to do that. For instance, both Yum and DNF deals
with the same problem and inside they employ urlgrabber <http://urlgrabber.baseurl.org/> to fetch the
files. A general solution if you work in C is for instance libcurl <http://libcurl.org/>. If you are
building a nice downloading library that integrates well with hawkey, let us know.
Why is a tool to do the downloads not integrated into Hawkey?
Because downloading things from remote servers is a differnt domain full of its own complexities like
HTTPS, parallel downloads, error handling and error recovery to name a few. Downloading is a concern that
can be naturally separated from other parts of package metadata managing.
PYTHON-HAWKEY TUTORIAL
Contents
• python-hawkey Tutorial
• Setup
• The Sack Object
• Loading RPMDB
• Loading Repositories
• Case for Loading the Filelists
• Building and Reusing the Repo Cache
• Queries
• Resolving things with Goals
• Selector Installs
Important:
Please consult every usage of the library with python-hawkey Reference Manual <> to be sure what are
you doing. The examples mentioned here are supposed to be as simple as possible and may ignore some
minor corner cases.
Setup
First of, make sure hawkey is installed on your system, this should work from your terminal:
>>> import hawkey
The Sack Object
Sack is an abstraction for a collection of packages. Sacks in hawkey are toplevel objects carrying much
of hawkey's of functionality. You'll want to create one:
>>> sack = hawkey.Sack()
>>> len(sack)
0
Initially, the sack contains no packages.
Loading RPMDB
hawkey is a lib for listing, querying and resolving dependencies of packages from repositories. On most
linux distributions you always have at least the system repo (in Fedora it is the RPM database). To load
it:
>>> sack.load_system_repo()
>>> len(sack)
1683
Hawkey always knows the name of every repository. The system repository is always set to
hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME <#hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME>. and the client is responsible for naming the
available repository metadata.
Loading Repositories
Let's be honest here: all the fun in packaging comes from packages you haven't installed yet. Information
about them, their metadata, can be obtained from different sources and typically they are downloaded from
an HTTP mirror (another possibilities are FTP server, NFS mount, DVD distribution media, etc.). Hawkey
does not provide any means to discover and obtain the metadata locally: it is up to the client to provide
valid readable paths to the repository metadata XML files. Structures used for passing the information to
hawkey are the hawkey Repos <#hawkey.Repo>. Suppose we somehow obtained the metadata and placed it in
/home/akozumpl/tmp/repodata. We can then load the metadata into hawkey:
>>> path = "/home/akozumpl/tmp/repodata/%s"
>>> repo = hawkey.Repo("experimental")
>>> repo.repomd_fn = path % "repomd.xml"
>>> repo.primary_fn = path % "f7753a2636cc89d70e8aaa1f3c08413ab78462ca9f48fd55daf6dedf9ab0d5db-primary.xml.gz"
>>> repo.filelists_fn = path % "0261e25e8411f4f5e930a70fa249b8afd5e86bb9087d7739b55be64b76d8a7f6-filelists.xml.gz"
>>> sack.load_repo(repo, load_filelists=True)
>>> len(sack)
1685
The number of packages in the Sack will increase by the number of packages found in the repository (two
in this case, it is an experimental repo after all).
Case for Loading the Filelists
What the load_filelists=True argument to load_repo() <#hawkey.Sack.load_repo> above does is instruct
hawkey to process the <hash>filelists.xml.gz file we passed in and which contains structured list of
absolute paths to all files of all packages within the repo. This information can be used for two
purposes:
• Finding a package providing given file. For instance, you need the file
/usr/share/man/man3/fprintf.3.gz which is not installed. Consulting filelists (directly or through
hawkey) can reveal the file is in the man-pages package.
• Depsolving. Some packages require concrete files as their dependencies. To know if these are resolvable
and how, the solver needs to know what package provides what files.
Some files provided by a package (e.g those in /usr/bin) are always visible even without loading the
filelists. Well-behaved packages requiring only those can be thus resolved directly. Unortunately, there
are packages that don't behave and it is hard to tell in advance when you'll deal with one.
The strategy for using load_filelists=True is thus:
• Use it if you know you'll do resolving (i.e. you'll use Goal).
• Use it if you know you'll be trying to match files to their packages.
• Use it if you are not sure.
Building and Reusing the Repo Cache
Internally to hold the package information and perform canonical resolving hawkey uses Libsolv <https://
github.com/openSUSE/libsolv>. One great benefit this library offers is providing writing and reading of
metadata cache files in libsolv's own binary format (files with .solv extension, typically). At a cost of
few hundreds of milliseconds, using the solv files reduces repo load times from seconds to tens of
milliseconds. It is thus a good idea to write and use the solv files every time you plan to use the same
repo for more than one Sack (which is at least every time your hawkey program is run). To do that use
build_cache=True with load_repo() <#hawkey.Sack.load_repo> and load_system_repo() <#hawkey.Sack
.load_system_repo>:
>>> sack = hawkey.Sack(make_cache_dir=True)
>>> sack.load_system_repo(build_cache=True)
By default, Hawkey creates @System.cache under the /var/tmp/hawkey-<your_login>-<random_hash> directory.
This is the hawkey cache directory, which you can always delete later (deleting the cache files in the
process). The .solv files are picked up automatically the next time you try to create a hawkey sack.
Except for a much higher speed of the operation this will be completely transparent to you:
>>> s2 = hawkey.Sack()
>>> s2.load_system_repo()
By the way, the cache directory (if not set otherwise) also contains a logfile with some boring debugging
information.
Queries
Query is the means in hawkey of finding a package based on one or more criteria (name, version,
repository of origin). Its interface is loosely based on Django's QuerySets <https://docs.djangoproject
.com/en/1.4/topics/db/queries/>, the main concepts being:
• a fresh Query object matches all packages in the Sack and the selection is gradually narrowed down by
calls to Query.filter()
• applying a Query.filter() does not start to evaluate the Query, i.e. the Query is lazy. Query is only
evaluated when we explicitly tell it to or when we start to iterate it.
• use Python keyword arguments to Query.filter() to specify the filtering criteria.
For instance, let's say I want to find all installed packages which name ends with gtk:
>>> q = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(reponame=hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME, name__glob='*gtk')
>>> for pkg in q:
... print str(pkg)
...
NetworkManager-gtk-1:0.9.4.0-9.git20120521.fc17.x86_64
authconfig-gtk-6.2.1-1.fc17.x86_64
clutter-gtk-1.2.0-1.fc17.x86_64
libchamplain-gtk-0.12.2-1.fc17.x86_64
libreport-gtk-2.0.10-3.fc17.x86_64
pinentry-gtk-0.8.1-6.fc17.x86_64
python-slip-gtk-0.2.20-2.fc17.noarch
transmission-gtk-2.50-2.fc17.x86_64
usermode-gtk-1.109-1.fc17.x86_64
webkitgtk-1.8.1-2.fc17.x86_64
xdg-user-dirs-gtk-0.9-1.fc17.x86_64
Or I want to find the latest version of all python packages the Sack knows of:
>>> q.clear()
>>> q = q.filter(name='python', latest_per_arch=True)
>>> for pkg in q:
... print str(pkg)
...
python-2.7.3-6.fc17.x86_64
You can also test a Query for its truth value. It will be true whenever the query matched at least one
package:
>>> q = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(file='/boot/vmlinuz-3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64')
>>> if q:
... print 'match'
...
match
>>> q = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(file='/booty/vmlinuz-3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64')
>>> if q:
... print 'match'
...
>>> if not q:
... print 'no match'
...
no match
Note:
If the Query hasn't been evaluated already then it is evaluated whenever it's length is taken (either
via len(q) or q.count()), when it is tested for truth and when it is explicitly evaluated with
q.run().
Resolving things with Goals
Many Sack <#hawkey.Sack> sessions culminate in a bout of dependency resolving, that is answering a
question along the lines of "I have a package X in a repository here, what other packages do I need to
install/update to have X installed and all its dependencies recursively satisfied?" Suppose we want to
install the RTS game Spring <http://springrts.com/>. First let's locate the latest version of the package
in repositories:
>>> q = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(name='spring', latest_per_arch=True)
>>> pkg = hawkey.Query(sack).filter(name='spring', latest_per_arch=True)[0]
>>> str(pkg)
'spring-88.0-2.fc17.x86_64'
>>> pkg.reponame
'fedora'
Then build the Goal object and tell it our goal is installing the pkg. Then we fire off the libsolv's
dependency resolver by running the goal:
>>> g = hawkey.Goal(sack)
>>> g.install(pkg)
>>> g.run()
True
True as a return value here indicates that libsolv could find a solution to our goal. This is not always
the case, there are plenty of situations when there is no solution, the most common one being a package
should be installed but one of its dependencies is missing from the sack.
The three methods Goal.list_installs(), Goal.list_upgrades() and Goal.list_erasures() can show which
packages should be installed/upgraded/erased to satisfy the packaging goal we set out to achieve (the
mapping of str() over the results below ensures human readable package names instead of numbers are
presented):
>>> map(str, g.list_installs())
['spring-88.0-2.fc17.x86_64', 'spring-installer-20090316-10.fc17.x86_64', 'springlobby-0.139-3.fc17.x86_64', 'spring-maps-default-0.1-8.fc17.noarch', 'wxBase-2.8.12-4.fc17.x86_64', 'wxGTK-2.8.12-4.fc17.x86_64', 'rb_libtorrent-0.15.9-1.fc17.x86_64', 'GeoIP-1.4.8-2.1.fc17.x86_64']
>>> map(str, g.list_upgrades())
[]
>>> map(str, g.list_erasures())
[]
So what does it tell us? That given the state of the given system and the given repository we used, 8
packages need to be installed, spring-88.0-2.fc17.x86_64 itself included. No packages need to be upgraded
or erased.
Selector Installs
For certain simple and commonly used queries we can do installs directly. Instead of executing a query
however we instantiate and pass the Goal.install() method a Selector:
>>> g = hawkey.Goal(sack)
>>> sltr = hawkey.Selector(sack).set(name='emacs-nox')
>>> g.install(select=sltr)
>>> g.run()
True
>>> map(str, g.list_installs())
['spring-88.0-2.fc17.x86_64', 'spring-installer-20090316-10.fc17.x86_64', 'springlobby-0.139-3.fc17.x86_64', 'spring-maps-default-0.1-8.fc17.noarch', 'wxBase-2.8.12-4.fc17.x86_64', 'wxGTK-2.8.12-4.fc17.x86_64', 'rb_libtorrent-0.15.9-1.fc17.x86_64', 'GeoIP-1.4.8-2.1.fc17.x86_64']
>>> len(g.list_upgrades())
0
>>> len(g.list_erasures())
0
Notice we arrived at the same result as before, when a query was constructed and iterated first. What
Selector does when passed to Goal.install() is tell hawkey to examine its settings and without evaluating
it as a Query it instructs libsolv to find the best matching package for it and add that for
installation. It saves user some decisions like which version should be installed or what architecture
(this gets very relevant with multiarch libraries).
So Selectors usually only install a single package. If you mean to install all packages matching an
arbitrarily complex query, just use the method describe above:
>>> map(goal.install, q)
PYTHON-HAWKEY REFERENCE MANUAL
Contents
• python-hawkey Reference Manual
• Introduction
• Contents
Introduction
This reference manual describes Python API to the library. For a quick start take a look at python-hawkey
Tutorial <>. To be sure that you are familiar with our deprecation policy, see API Changes <>.
Note:
The API consists of exactly those elements described in this document, items not documented here can
change from release to release. Opening a bugzilla <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?
product=Fedora&component=hawkey> if certain needed functionality is not exposed is the right thing to
do.
Warning:
The manual is not complete yet - the features are being added incrementally these days.
Contents
API Documentation Contents
Sack---The fundamental hawkey structure
class hawkey.Sack
Instances of hawkey.Sack represent collections of packages. An application typically needs at
least one instance because it provides much of the hawkey's functionality.
Warning:
Any package instance is not supposed to work interchangeably between hawkey.Query,
hawkey.Selector or hawkey.Goal created from different hawkey.Sack. Usually for common tasks
there is no need to initialize two or more Sacks in your program. Sacks cannot be deeply
copied.
cache_dir
A read-only string property giving the path to the location where a metadata cache is
stored.
installonly
A write-only sequence of strings property setting the provide names of packages that should
only ever be installed, never upgraded.
installonly_limit
A write-only integer property setting how many installonly packages with the same name are
allowed to be installed concurrently. If 0, any number of packages can be installed.
__init__(cachedir=_CACHEDIR, arch=_ARCH, rootdir=_ROOTDIR, pkgcls=hawkey.Package, pkginitval=None,
make_cache_dir=False, logfile=_LOGFILE)
Initialize the sack with a default cache directory, log file location set to hawkey.log in
the cache directory, an automatically detected architecture and the current root (/) as an
installroot. The cache is disabled by default.
cachedir is a string giving a path of a cache location.
arch is a string specifying an architecture.
rootdir is a string giving a path to an installroot.
pkgcls is a class of packages retrieved from the sack. The class' __init__ method must
accept two arguments. The first argument is a tuple of the sack and the ID of the package.
The second argument is the pkginitval argument. pkginitval cannot be None if pkgcls is
specified.
make_cache_dir is a boolean that specifies whether the cache should be used to speedup
loading of repositories or not (see Building and Reusing the Repo Cache <#
building-and-reusing-the-repo-cache-label>).
logfile is a string giving a path of a log file location.
__len__()
Returns the number of the packages loaded into the sack.
add_cmdline_package(filename)
Add a package to a command line repository and return it. The package is specified as a
string filename of an RPM file. The command line repository will be automatically created
if doesn't exist already. It could be referenced later by hawkey.CMDLINE_REPO_NAME <#hawkey
.CMDLINE_REPO_NAME> name.
add_excludes(packages)
Add a sequence of packages that cannot be fetched by Queries nor Selectors.
add_includes(packages)
Add a sequence of the only packages that can be fetched by Queries or Selectors.
This is the inverse operation of add_excludes(). Any package that is not in the union of
all the included packages is excluded. This works in conjunction with exclude and doesn't
override it. So, if you both include and exclude the same package, the package is
considered excluded no matter of the order.
disable_repo(name)
Disable the repository identified by a string name. Packages in that repository cannot be
fetched by Queries nor Selectors.
enable_repo(name)
Enable the repository identified by a string name. Packages in that repository can be
fetched by Queries or Selectors.
Warning:
Execution of add_excludes(), add_includes(), disable_repo() or enable_repo() methods could
cause inconsistent results in previously evaluated Query, Selector or Goal. The rule of thumb
is to exclude/include packages, enable/disable repositories at first and then do actual
computing using Query, Selector or Goal. For more details see developer discussion <https://
github.com/rpm-software-management/hawkey/pull/87>.
evr_cmp(evr1, evr2)
Compare two EVR strings and return a negative integer if evr1 < evr2, zero if evr1 == evr2
or a positive integer if evr1 > evr2.
get_running_kernel()
Detect and return the package of the currently running kernel. If the package cannot be
found, None is returned.
list_arches()
List strings giving all the supported architectures.
load_system_repo(repo=None, build_cache=False)
Load the information about the packages in the system repository (in Fedora it is the RPM
database) into the sack. This makes the dependency solving aware of the already installed
packages. The system repository is always set to hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME <#hawkey
.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME>. The information is not written to the cache by default.
repo is an optional Repo <#hawkey.Repo> object that represents the system repository. The
object is updated during the loading.
build_cache is a boolean that specifies whether the information should be written to the
cache (see Building and Reusing the Repo Cache <#
building-and-reusing-the-repo-cache-label>).
load_repo(repo, build_cache=False, load_filelists=False, load_presto=False, load_updateinfo=False)
Load the information about the packages in a Repo <#hawkey.Repo> into the sack. This makes
the dependency solving aware of these packages. The information is not written to the cache
by default.
repo is the Repo <#hawkey.Repo> object to be processed. At least its Repo.repomd_fn <#
hawkey.Repo.repomd_fn> must be set. If the cache has to be updated, Repo.primary_fn <#
hawkey.Repo.primary_fn> is needed too. Some information about the loading process and some
results of it are written into the internal state of the repository object.
build_cache is a boolean that specifies whether the information should be written to the
cache (see Building and Reusing the Repo Cache <#
building-and-reusing-the-repo-cache-label>).
load_filelists, load_presto and load_updateinfo are booleans that specify whether the
Repo.filelists_fn <#hawkey.Repo.filelists_fn>, Repo.presto_fn <#hawkey.Repo.presto_fn> and
Repo.updateinfo_fn <#hawkey.Repo.updateinfo_fn> files of the repository should be
processed. These files may contain information needed for dependency solving, downloading
or querying of some packages. Enable it if you are not sure (see Case for Loading the
Filelists <#case-for-loading-the-filelists-label>).
Error handling
When an error or an unexpected event occurs during a Hawkey routine, an exception is raised:
• if it is a general error that could be common to other Python programs, one of the standard Python
built-in exceptions is raised. For instance, IOError and TypeError can be raised from Hawkey.
• programming errors within Hawkey that cause unexpected or invalid states raise the standard
AssertionError. These should be reported as bugs against Hawkey.
• programming errors due to incorrect use of the library usually produce hawkey.ValueException or one of
its subclasses, QueryException (poorly formed Query) or ArchException (unrecognized architecture).
• sometimes there is a close call between blaming the error on an input parameter or on something else,
beyond the programmer's control. hawkey.RuntimeException is generally used in this case.
• hawkey.ValidationException is raised when a function call performs a preliminary check before
proceeding with the main operation and this check fails.
The class hierarchy for Hawkey exceptions is:
+-- hawkey.Exception
+-- hawkey.ValueException
| +-- hawkey.QueryException
| +-- hawkey.ArchException
+-- hawkey.RuntimeException
+-- hawkey.ValidationException
Module level constants
hawkey.CMDLINE_REPO_NAME
The string name of the command line repository.
hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME
The string name of the system repository.
Repositories
class hawkey.Repo
Instances of hawkey.Repo point to metadata of packages that are available to be installed. The
metadata are expected to be in the "rpm-md" format. librepo <https://github.com/Tojaj/librepo> may
help you with downloading the required files.
cost An integer specifying a relative cost of accessing this repository. This value is compared
when the priorities of two repositories are the same. The repository with the lowest cost
is picked. It is useful to make the library prefer on-disk repositories to remote ones.
filelists_fn
A valid string path to the readable "filelists" XML file if set.
name A string name of the repository.
presto_fn
A valid string path to the readable "prestodelta.xml" (also called "deltainfo.xml") file if
set.
primary_fn
A valid string path to the readable "primary" XML file if set.
priority
An integer priority value of this repository. If there is more than one candidate package
for a particular operation, the one from the repository with the lowest priority value is
picked, possibly despite being less convenient otherwise (e.g. by being a lower version).
repomd_fn
A valid string path to the readable "repomd.xml" file if set.
updateinfo_fn
A valid string path to the readable "updateinfo.xml" file if set.
__init__(name)
Initialize the repository with empty repomd_fn, primary_fn, filelists_fn and presto_fn. The
priority and the cost are set to 0.
name is a string giving the name of the repository. The name should not be equal to
hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME <#hawkey.SYSTEM_REPO_NAME> nor hawkey.CMDLINE_REPO_NAME <#hawkey
.CMDLINE_REPO_NAME>
Indices:
• Index <>
DESIGN RATIONALE
Selectors are not Queries
Since both a Query and a Selector work to limit the set of all Sack's packages to a subset, it can be
suggested the two concepts should be the same and e.g. Queries should be used for Goal specifications
instead of Selectors:
// create sack, goal, ...
HyQuery q = hy_query_create(sack);
hy_query_filter(q, HY_PKG_NAME, HY_EQ, "anaconda")
hy_goal_install_query(q)
This arrangment was in fact used in hawkey prior to version 0.3.0, just because Queries looked like a
convenient structure to hold this kind of information. It was unfortunately confusing for the
programmers: notice how evaluating the Query q would generally produce several packages (anaconda for
different architectures and then different versions) but somehow when the same Query is passed into the
goal methods it always results in up to one pacakge selected for the operation. This is a principal
discrepancy. Further, Query is universal and allows one to limit the package set with all sorts of
criteria, matched in different ways (substrings, globbing, set operation) while Selectors only support
few. Finally, while a fresh Query with no filters applied corresponds to all packages of the Sack, a
fresh Selector with no limits set is of no meaning.
An alternative to introducing a completely different concept was adding a separate constructor function
for Query, one that would from the start designate the Query to only accept settings compatible with its
purpose of becoming the selecting element in a Goal operation (in Python this would probably be
implemented as a subclass of Query). But that would break client's assumptions about Query (the
unofficial C++ FAQ <http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/circle-ellipse.html> takes up the topic).
Implementation note: Selectors reflect the kind of specifications that can be directly translated into
Libsolv jobs, without actually searching for a concrete package to put there. In other words, Selectors
are specifically designed not to iterate over the package data (with exceptions, like glob matching) like
Queries do. While Hawkey mostly aims to hide any twists and complexities of the underlying library, in
this case the combined reasons warrant a concession.
Indices and tables
• Index <>
• Module Index <>
• Search Page <>
Author
Aleš Kozumplík
Copyright
2012-2015, Red Hat, Licensed under GPLv2+
0.75.0 Oct 24, 2025 HAWKEY(3)