I can not tell which package belongs to which transaction . In Synaptic, the list is organized by date, and then by transaction.
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You may want to use the development communication channels for your feature request. This is the user forum which is rarely used by developers.
As far as i can see at the project page on github, nobody brought up such an enhancement request yet.
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This feature might need some additional work as the actual /var/log/zypp/history is not “that” verbose.
Simple test in Leap 16 with Myrlyn. Install some packages via Myrlyn. Close Myrlyn. Open again and install some more packages. Inspect /var/log/zypp/history
You will find that there are no “transactions” logged (if i understand your definition of transaction correct). Only times and dates and when Myrlin was opened. The opening time of Myrlyn might serve as “transaction” but the devs need to decide about this.
Additionally this would be a completely new feature which was not even provided by YaST. So if you have some good ideas how to implement this, the dev would be for sure open for your suggestion.
I agree and I’d like an export function that exports logs in a format that’s easier to read than the log in /var/log/zypp/history. Something similar to the terminal output from zypper dup.
I use zypper dup with large updates so I can easily go back and see what was updated and when. The saved terminal output is very easy to read.
You can use zypper install --force package-name and use the list from the update.
Use this terminal output to make a zypper command to force reinstall the packages if there's a problem.
The following 7 packages are going to be upgraded:
librpmbuild10 openSUSE-release openSUSE-release-appliance-custom python311-rpm python313-rpm rpm rpm-build
zypper install --force librpmbuild10 openSUSE-release openSUSE-release-appliance-custom python311-rpm python313-rpm rpm rpm-build
That’s a small update for an example. Years ago, using Mageia, I accidentally clicked on and uninstalled the wrong package and hit go. It took the whole KDE desktop with it! I opened the log and edited it to be a command to reinstall everything that had just been uninstalled. When I rebooted, it worked.
That would be much more difficult with the zypp history file. I know you can use grep etc to fetch info from the history file or journal by date etc, but the terminal output gives you a good clean list that’s ready to go. You have to use the zypp history file if you mistakenly removed a package that removed critical system packages with Yast or Myrlyn.
When something bad happens or we destroy our own system, we need every tool to make it as simple as possible to reinstall or remove the bad packages etc.
Myrlyn has a pretty readable list, but there’s no way to export it. It’d be nice to be able to export just the package names or with dates, versions etc. I’m sure there’s a script somewhere that can do this with zypp history, but a built-in export would be really nice.
It’d be very handy if you accidentally installed a 32-bit package that pulled in a lot of dependencies that you wouldn’t need with the proper 64-bit package. Just use the log to remove them and then install the intended 64-bit package.
The history file contains the same information as the terminal output. Only seperators are added and checksums…so it should be quite easy to extract the information you want.
Example history content:
<snip here>
2025-05-11 15:15:56|install|kate-lang|25.04.1-1.1|noarch||OSS|5521bfc44de81b1c729959302b00b5788d79ae4c5c7c9c332c8882447efce172f20e479a24e879127314e6606f7b50b478e0118de343fc431e991d8e3ce43105|
2025-05-11 15:15:57|install|dolphin-part-lang|25.04.1-1.1|noarch||OSS|c2291ea5174576166e300ebd61a9bddb4b62b39f8f80b998abe2838de97c024e775fedc98c8241eb81529a6a8a4670e2a8977a7ef14949da27209654e965ee5d|
2025-05-11 15:15:57|install|dolphin|25.04.1-1.1|x86_64||OSS|b3c484969d125fbb0c757776d9b5cbdff3ca78e4369951c89fae4cff33cae8f6b22155a065713405b37817bcb0c33266c7e7195445ae8afc38933c5a112fb7f9|
2025-05-11 15:15:57|install|skanlite-lang|25.04.1-1.1|noarch||OSS|5a7b659ad6a2af2f310d19ec537ec7a581235b054fc52f0e01d6b2156397ce1cbec81bb25644cb2d3cbfe0399c13f3065dd844891b9507585dc46eec290a0709|
# 2025-05-11 15:16:00 %transfiletriggerpostun(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64) script output:
# Running %posttrans(openSUSE-release-20250509-3515.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerin(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerin(man-2.13.0-3.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerin(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerin(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerpostun(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerpostun(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerpostun(man-2.13.0-3.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerpostun(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
# Running %transfiletriggerpostun(systemd-257.5-2.1.x86_64)
<snip there>
But as explained: you need to channel this request at the right places…
There is no log needed. This function already exists in YaST and Myrlyn. Simply mark the 32bit package for deinstallation and check the box for “Cleanup when deleting packages”. This will uninstall all package deps which got pulled in when installing a package.
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Sorry @hui , this is my first post. In debian the var log file design is different and looks like this :
And history in synaptic organizes packages by date and then by the time stamp of the transaction and looks like this
I am glad the topic is raising some discussion.
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Yes, I forgot that part, you need to talk to the Myrlyn wizard!
And yes, zypp history has a list but it’d be difficult to edit that for a forced reinstall or to easily remove all of those packages. I guess Myrlyn could have a redo or undo of the last transaction.
Would you please direct me to the place?
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Thanks 
1 Like
See, I’ve never made a mistake in Tumbleweed… Well, not a catastrophic one. 
Thanks for the info.
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