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zypper

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

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

zypper help command

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.

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

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.

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.

Zypp verifies the authenticity of repository metadata by checking their GPG signature. If the repository metadata are signed with a trusted key and and successfully verified, packages from that repository are accepted for installation if they match the checksum provided in the metadata. If the repository metadata are not signed, the signature of each downloaded rpm package is checked before accepting it for installation.

This default behavior can be tuned by explicitly setting the variables repo_gpgcheck and/or pkg_gpgcheck in the ZYpp configuration file (/etc/zypp/zypp.conf) to perform those checks always (if on) or never (if off).

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.

To specify locations of repositories or other resources (RPM files, .repo files) you can use any type of URIs supported by libzypp. See section COMMANDS, subsection Repository Management for a complete list and usage examples.

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, the obs.platform value from zypper.conf is used. See also other options in the [obs] section of zypper.conf.

For example: obs://server:http/openSUSE_11.3.

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

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 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 http://old-en.opensuse.org/Standards/Repository_Index_Service for more details.

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. 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.

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

Focuses on packages a user might want to install and hide away supporting packages which are selected via package dependencies anyway (see http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/appdata/)

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 to specify resolvables as KIND:NAME (e.g. patch:openSUSE-2014-7).

Software packages depend on each other in various ways. Packages usually require or recommend other packages, but they can also conflict with other packages. Packages can also support specific hardware or language settings. Zypper uses a dependency solver to find out what packages need to be installed to satisfy the user’s request. See http://old-en.opensuse.org/Software_Management/Dependencies for more information.

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 check for file conflict only if all packages are downloaded in advance (see --download-in-advance).

As the reason for file conflicts usually is a poor package design or lack of coordination between the 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.

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.

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.

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.

-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.

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 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 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 available needed 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

Allow 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.

--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.

--no-recommends

By default, zypper installs also packages recommended by the requested ones. This option causes the recommended packages to be ignored and only the required ones to be installed.

--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.

-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.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution by allowing to remove packages with unfulfilled requirements. This is the default when removing packages (zypper remove *). This option overrides *--no-force-resolution in case both are specified on the command line.

-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.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

Download-and-install mode options:

-d, --download-only

Only download the packages for later installation.

--download-in-advance

First download all packages, then start installing.

--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. This is the default mode.

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.

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 and the packages that are required to build the source package.

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

-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.

--no-recommends

By default, zypper installs also packages recommended by the requested ones (the ones needed to fix broken dependencies in this case). This option causes the recommended packages to be ignored and only the required ones to be installed.

-D, --dry-run

Test the repair, do not actually do anything to the system.

--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.

--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|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.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

--debug-solver

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

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 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.

--debug-solver

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

-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.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution by allowing to remove packages with unfulfilled requirements. This is the default when removing packages (zypper remove *). This option overrides *--no-force-resolution in case both are specified on the command line.

-u, --clean-deps

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

-U, --no-clean-deps

No automatic removal of unneeded dependencies.

-D, --dry-run

Test the removal of packages, do not actually remove anything. This option will add the --test option to the rpm commands run by the remove command.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

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.

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.

--debug-solver

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

--no-recommends

By default, zypper installs also packages recommended by the requested ones. This option causes the recommended packages to be ignored and only the required ones to be installed.

--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.

-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.

--force-resolution

Force the solver to find a solution by allowing to remove packages with unfulfilled requirements. This is the default when removing packages (zypper remove *). This option overrides *--no-force-resolution in case both are specified on the command line.

-D, --dry-run

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

--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.

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

list-patches (lp) [options]

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

--cve[=#]

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

--date YYYY-MM-DD

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

-g, --category category

List available patches in the specified category.

--issues[=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 relevant and needed 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.

-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.

-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.

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.

-b, --bugzilla #

Install patch fixing a Bugzilla issue specified by number. Use list-patches --bugzilla command to get a list of available needed patches for specific issues.

--cve #

Install patch fixing a MITRE’s CVE issue specified by number. Use list-patches --cve command to get a list of available needed patches for specific issues.

--date YYYY-MM-DD

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

-g, --category category

Install all patches in the specified category. Use list-patches --category command to get a list of available patches for a specific category.

-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

Skip interactive patches.

--with-interactive

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

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

See the update command for description of this option.

--no-recommends

By default, zypper installs also packages recommended by the requested ones. This option causes the recommended packages to be ignored and only the required ones to be installed.

--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.

--debug-solver

Create test case for debugging of dependency resolver.

-D, --dry-run

Test the update, do not actually update.

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

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 the upgrade with all defined repositories. 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 http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.1/repo/oss) using the $releasever variable instead may be helpful (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/$releasever/repo/oss). The variable is per default substituted by the current distributions version (13.1) This value can be overwritten using the --releasever global option. Calling zypper --releasever 13.2... will cause these repos to use the new location (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.2/repo/oss) without need to add/remove anything. Once the dup is performed, $releasever will default to the new distribution version. See section Repository Management for more info about variable substitution.

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

Restricts the upgrade to the specified repositories (the option can be used multiple times) only, but can satisfy dependencies also from the rest of enabled repositories.

-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. 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.

--no-recommends

By default, zypper installs also packages recommended by the requested ones. This option causes the recommended packages to be ignored and only the required ones to be installed.

--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.

--debug-solver

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

-D, --dry-run

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

--details

Show the detailed installation summary.

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.

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, Type of package, Version, Architecture and Repository. The Status column can contain the following values:

i installed
v a different version is installed
empty neither of the former cases

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

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.

--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.

-n, --name

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

-f, --file-list

Search in file list of packages.

-d, --search-descriptions

Search also in summaries and descriptions.

-C, --case-sensitive

Perform case-sensitive search.

-i, --installed-only

Show only packages that are already installed.

-u, --uninstalled-only

Show only packages that are not currently installed.

-t, --type type

Search only for packages of specified type. See section Package Types for 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, --uninstalled-only

Show only packages which are not installed.

--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. Similar to zypper search -s -t patch.

-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, --uninstalled-only

Show only patterns which are not installed.

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, --uninstalled-only

Show only products which are not installed.

what-provides (wp) capability

List all packages providing the specified capability. See also the install command for info about specifying capabilities.

The command line is automatically transformed into the appropriate search command, e.g.:

$ zypper what-provides 'zypper>1.6'

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

Zypper is able to work with YaST, RPM-MD (yum) software repositories, and plain directories containing .rpm files.

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 built-in 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 overwritten using the --releasever global option. 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).

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.

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}

To check where you already use $releasever call:

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

Supported URI formats:

scheme: [//[user[:password]@]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.

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

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

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 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) in case the autodetection fails. 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. Repositories are added as enabled by default.

-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.

-f, --refresh

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

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 http://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 or URIs.

--loose-auth

Ignore user authentication data in the URI

--loose-query

Ignore query string in the URI

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.

-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/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.

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.

-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.

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.

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.

This command also allows one to add also ordinary repositories when used with --type option, where you specify the type of the repository. See the addrepo command for the list of supported repository types.

-t, --type type

Type of the service (possible values: ris) in case the autodetection fails. There are several aliases defined for this type:
ris RIS, nu, NU

-d, --disable

Add the service as disabled.

-n, --name

Specify descriptive name for 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.

-d, --disable

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

-e, --enable

Enable a disabled service.

-r, --refresh

Enable auto-refresh of the service.

-R, --no-refresh

Disable auto-refresh of the service.

-n, --name

Set a descriptive name for 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 serve 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|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.

removelock (rl) [options] 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.

-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.

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 has a form of distroname-architecture. The string is determined by libzypp, the distroname is read from (current-rootdir)/etc/products.d/baseproduct and the architecture is determined from uname and CPU flags.

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

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/packages/openSUSE:repo-oss-update/x86_64/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.

source-download

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

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 Guessed name of the service. If an init script exists for this service, you can do "rcservicename restart" to restart it.
Files The list of the deleted files

-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 specified zypper config file instead of the default files. Other command line options specified together with --config and having their counterpart in the 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)

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.

--[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

Specifies table style to use. Table style is identified by an integer number. TODO

-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.

-i, --ignore-unknown

Ignore unknown packages. This option is useful for scripts.

-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 downloaded rpm packages. (see addrepo --keep-packages) The default value is /var/cache/zypp/packages.

--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 providing a specific keyword. Disabled repositories are refreshed and those providing the specified tag keyword are temporarily enabled. To enable for example repositories which may provide additional -debuginfo or -debugsource packages use --plus-content debug. 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.

--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

Set the value of the $releasever variable in all .repo files (default: current distribution version). This can be used to switch to new distribution repositories when performing a distribution upgrade. See section Repository Management and the dist-upgrade (dup) command for details.

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.

--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.

/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.

/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, see locks(5) manual page for details. The package lock commands (addlock, removelock, etc.) can 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.

/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. See also the clean command for cleaning these cache directories.

This directory is used by all ZYpp-based applications.

/var/log/zypp/history

Installation history log.

~/.zypper_history

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

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

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.

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 successful installation of a patch which requires reboot of computer.

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.

105 - ZYPPER_EXIT_ON_SIGNAL

Returned upon exiting after receiving a SIGINT or SIGTERM.

https://github.com/openSUSE/zypper

Martin Vidner <mvidner@suse.cz>
Jan Kupec <>
Michael Andres <ma@suse.de>
Duncan Mac-Vicar <dmacvicar@suse.de>
Josef Reidinger <jreidinger@suse.cz>
Stanislav Visnovsky <visnov@suse.cz>

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