I am still a bit of an OpenSuse noob, so if this is a silly question, I apologise in advance.
I am trying to install this theme: arc-gtk-theme. It’s shown as available here and here. But on my Tumbleweed install, zypper search arc-gtk-theme shows no results. How come?
Did you add the repository?
zypper is not an internet crawler, it will only use enabled repositories.
Well, no, but that’s kind of my point. So far, I thought that if a package says “official release” for Tumbleweed on software.opensuse.org, then zypper should find it using the standard Tumbleweed repositories. Is that not the case?
You are talking about “Factory”, not about “official release”.
Factory is were people build for their own purposes. Some of it may later be forwarded to a new Tumbleweed snapshot.
I’m sorry if I’m being thick. But if you go to https://software.opensuse.org/package/arc-gtk-theme it says “Distributions” > “openSUSE Tumbleweed” > “official release”.
That sounds very “official” to me (pardon the pun). So is that not “official Tumbleweed” but “official Factory”?
Well, it is you that introduced the word “Factory”. In the title!
That said, I am still thinking that the search function of software.opensuse.org is broken since years. I wondered already long ago while it is not removed.
Maybe others can help you in the correct direction.
In any case, as said, zypper can only search enabled repos and the system. I have Leap 15.6 here and used YaST to search for it and it can not find it either in spite of it being offered in the search page you provided:
@susedog Hi, Factory is the staging area, it may or may not get pushed to Tumbleweed… It may have been missed as well…
I see you commented on the package, suggest you wait for a response there…
s.o.o shows source packages and zypper installs binary packages. Many binary packages may be created from one source and their names need not be the same.
andrei@tumbleweed:~/tmp> zypper se metatheme-arc
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
S | Name | Summary | Type
---+----------------------+------------------------+--------
| gtk2-metatheme-arc | Arc GTK 2 Theme | package
| gtk3-metatheme-arc | Arc GTK 3 Theme | package
| gtk4-metatheme-arc | Arc GTK 4 Theme | package
| metatheme-arc-common | Arc Common Theme Files | package
andrei@tumbleweed:~/tmp> zypper info gtk3-metatheme-arc
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Information for package gtk3-metatheme-arc:
-------------------------------------------
Repository : openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Oss (20241013)
...
Source package : arc-gtk-theme-20221218-1.4.src
No, Factory is not it. Get your facts right.
Oh man, I did, dammit. I guess that shows how confused I am.
Yes, it behaves inconsistently. If I choose “ALL Distributions” at the top, it shows an “official release” for openSUSE Tumbleweed. But when I choose “openSUSE Tumbleweed” at the top, no package is shown.
I’m starting to understand better, thank you.
I shall. I try to not add any repositories to my system if possible, and I won’t for a simple theme. But since this theme was more a trigger for more general questions, here’s another general one: could adding the Factory repo lead to complications, or could I add it and then just install this one package from it?
Thank you, this explains a few things! So I probably should not use software.opensuse.org at all to search for packages (I’m a simple end-user)?
The thing is, I’m still a bit lost as to where to search for packages. I did use zypper. But was buried by results. 
Is there no online place to browse packages?
And back to the actual theme that I’m trying to install… could you point me to the right package to install (gtk3, gtk4, both)?
YaST Software is convinient for beginners as it offers a GUI and filters for package search.
Later if you are more experienced, zypper search and other tools are better suited.
That is of course correct, but my impression is that the OP not only wants to search on the enabled repos he has already (that of course being the first thing to do), but he wants to extend his searching further when a product is not in those repos.
Eralier I would have adviced to go to the search he already used, but I am not sure that is still a good idea. And more, it often leads to one-click installs (that then brake the repo list).
So what is the advice?
@susedog ,
I also think that it is worth to think about what the path is to wanting to install something. What is the product, were did you hear of it. Why do you want it, etc.
Take into account that a product’s name must not be the same as the name of the packages needed.
Is it on the standard repo, on so called home: repos, on a vendors web site as RPM, or as tarball? The further away from the standard repos, the more change that problems during installation or usage will surface.
Just do
zypper in metatheme-arc-common
it should install theme packages for all installed Gtk versions (and vice versa - if you install additional Gtk versions in the future, they will also pull in corresponding theme package). At least, if you did not follow the popular advice and did not disable installing recommended packages “to reduce bloat”.
I am afraid there is no easy way to jump from a source package to binary packages. I was a bit surprised because I was sure Open Build Service shows them … but either I am mistaken or something has changed indeed.
Now, the repository metadata is present on your system and if you know the source package name (e.g. from s.o.o), you could use something like
bor@tw:~> dumpsolv -j /var/cache/zypp/solv/openSUSE-20221216-0/solv | jq .'repositories.[0].solvables.[] | select (."solvable:sourcename" == "arc-gtk-theme") | ."solvable:name"'
"gtk2-metatheme-arc"
"gtk3-metatheme-arc"
"gtk4-metatheme-arc"
"metatheme-arc-common"
bor@tw:~>
(or, if you are fluent in Xpath, something similar using raw XML metadata). But yes, it would be nice if zypper supported such search natively.
Actually, zypper supports plugins so it is possible to extend it without changing zypper itself.
Not as refined as Debian/Ubuntu offer. There is build service, but it is for developers and even it does not really show this information as we have found.
This is where opi shines. It hunts down repos filling the search terms, and offers a selection from which to enable repo and install package. The question then becomes managing that repo, as when using s.o.o. That new repo needs to be enabled for updates to be automatic, but disabled to prevent other package additions from installing, against intent, from that repo.
I guess your information is useful to the OP also, but you did not provide enough information for a newcomer to understand what opi is or how to get it.
Another victim of the 10 minute edit window…OBS Package Installer.
Wow, thank you all for the insightful responses. I definitely understand the situation better now and know a bit better what to do in the future.
I do like it and use it from time to time. Even if the information is the same as zypper, seeing it differently somehow makes my brain process it differently.
Yes, that is something I have been learning slowly in the Linux world and I have messed up more than once along the way (finally having Snapper has made my life SO MUCH EASIER!). Repository mess, one-click installs, AppImages, flatpaks (user or system), general messiness… It’s one of the main reasons I have been shying away from recommending Linux to family and friends. Once Aeon is fully released, I may give it another go and maybe that will be a good first distro for them.
Thank you. It was unintuitive for me since I would have thought to install gtk4 (and/or gtk3), thinking the common package would then be installed as a dependency. But doing it the other way round makes sense to me now.
A super good idea that I may try with something more important than a theme some day. 
I had tried opi before when installing codecs and I ended up with a messy system that I had to reinstall - I am very certain due to me doing silly things along the way. So I have been wary of it since. But now that you told me I can basically use it as a discovery tool, I gave it another try. And yes opi arc theme leads to way more usable results than zypper search arc theme.
Thanks again to all of you, my horizon has again been broadened a bit!
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