New to OpenSUSE from Debian-- Zypper and pkg mgmt questions

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#1

Hello all,

I might switch to OpenSUSE from Debian, but I have my doubts still about package management with OpenSUSE. Could someone please help with the following question?

  1. I’m glad to see that zypper now has the --clean-deps option. Is there a YAST GUI for this as well? I don’t like the command line very much.
  2. Additionally, is there any way to remove a package with all its config files? In Debian with the Synaptic front end, you can right click on package and click “remove” and it will just uninstall the package but leave its configuration files intact. But if you select “Completely Remove” it will remove all the configuration files so that if you later install the package again it will use the default settings once again. Is there any way to do this with OpenSUSE? Again, I’d prefer a GUI.
  3. Does 11.3 offer Delta RPM updates, and are there many repos that offer delta RPMs?
  4. Does Zypper cache downloaded packages by default? And using the YAST package management GUI are packages caches by default? If so, where?
  5. Does the YAST GUI try to refresh the package cache all the time, or can I do it manually?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks a lot!

#2
  1. Yes
  2. From memory. I think RPM deletes de config files if they have not been modified, and saves it with .rpmsave extension if modified. No idea how to change that.
  3. Yes. Only the official updates repository.
  4. No. No. If configured to do so at /var/cache/zypp/packages by default, but configurable globally and per-repo
  5. By default, yes. Configurable globally and per-repo.
#3

Thanks very much for the complete answer! A few questions…

#4
  1. My memory :-p
  2. Yes
  3. Per-repo, yes. But I just looked at it again and you can’t configure it globally. There is the “–no-refresh” option for zypper, but I don’t think you can disable autorefresh globally for YaST. You can use “zypper mr -ar” and “zypper mr -aR” to enable/disable autorefresh of all the repos in a fast way, but isn’t exactly a global option… what it does is disable it per-repo for every repo.
#5

On 2010-07-16 18:16 GMT uglymugly123 wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> I might switch to OpenSUSE from Debian, but I have my doubts still
> about package management with OpenSUSE. Could someone please help
> with the following question?
>
>
> - I’m glad to see that zypper now has the --clean-deps option. Is
> there a YAST GUI for this as well? I don’t like the command line
> very much.

The GTK version of YaST might. In has a new feature in 11.3 to undo
installations with related packages. The zypper --clean-deps options is
also new, thus, not very much tested.

> - Additionally, is there any way to remove a package with all its
> config files?

No. AFAIK, all config files remain.

> - Does 11.3 offer Delta RPM updates, and are there many repos that
> offer delta RPMs?

Yes, but only the update repo.

> - Does Zypper cache downloaded packages by default?

Not by default, you have to select that option for each repo, one by
one. I think…

But have a look at /etc/zypp/zypp.conf, there is a
“commit.downloadMode” var that has some interesting options:

DownloadInAdvance, First download all packages to the local cache.

Then start to install.

DownloadInHeaps, Similar to DownloadInAdvance, but try to split

the transaction into heaps, where at the end of

each heap a consistent system state is reached.

> And using the
> YAST package management GUI are packages caches by default? If so,
> where?

Yes, of course, In the repository configuration module.

> - Does the YAST GUI try to refresh the package cache all the time, or
> can I do it manually?

By that you mean the metadata or the data? The metadata is updated
daily to know if there is something to update (only for those repos
for which refresh is enabled). The data, only if you configure for
automatic updates.

And then, manually, of course.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Minas Tirith))