I don’t know when it started, but recently when I zypper dup, the first step is called “preloading” and it zooms right along. Next step is “retrieving” and it also zooms right along. Finally the updates install.
I don’t know why there is the extra step of preloading or how it really speeds things up. I don’t know if this comes into play, but occasionally I check what updates Discover has to offer. I don’t update via Discover, I just look at it to see if there is anything urgent.
None of this is a problem. I’m just curious as to what is going on and why the updates are so much faster.
Thank you for that interesting information. The article talks about setting a variable to get parallel downloads. I didn’t do that but I definitely got a speed boost.
ls -l /etc/zypp/repos.d
grep -Er 'baseurl=|metalink=' /etc/zypp/repos.d
To enable parallel preload it is not enough to set environment variables. You also need to use metalink= option in repository definitions. I just checked and service still generates the standard repository definition with baseurl= option and even after setting environment variables zypper still does not use preloading.
That does not match the description from Benjamin Zeller and all openSUSE announcements.
The machines here don’t use the openSUSE-repos-Tumbleweed packages. All repo definitions still use baseurl= and ZYPP_PCK_PRELOAD=1 zypper dup uses preloading flawlessly.
Since both features do not actively fetch mirrorlink informations from
the server it is best to combine them with a existing feature,
specifying the metalink/mirror information in each .repo file. Otherwise
especially the parallel downloader will only fetch from the
baseUrl which might be slower.
Parallel downloads (preloading) does not need metalink (but might speed it up even more). This is documented in all announcements and is backed by the experience of other forum users.
Proof:
laptopneu:~ # ZYPP_PCK_PRELOAD=1 zypper dup --no-recommends
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Warning: You are about to do a distribution upgrade with all enabled repositories. Make sure these repositories are compatible before you continue. See 'man zypper' for more information about this command.
Computing distribution upgrade...
The following 8 items are locked and will not be changed by any action:
Available:
geoclue2 patterns-games-games patterns-kde-kde_games patterns-kde-kde_office patterns-kde-kde_pim patterns-kde-kde_utilities patterns-kde-kde_utilities_opt patterns-office-office
The following 5 packages are going to be upgraded:
libavutil58-32bit libfaad2 librtmp1 libswscale8-32bit libx265-209
5 packages to upgrade.
Package download size: 2.0 MiB
Package install size change:
| 17.7 MiB required by packages that will be installed
0 B | - 17.7 MiB released by packages that will be removed
Backend: classic_rpmtrans
Continue? [y/n/v/...? shows all options] (y):
Preloading: libx265-209-3.6-1699.2.pm.12.x86_64.rpm
Preloading: libswscale8-32bit-7.1-1699.6.pm.4.x86_64.rpm
Preloading: libfaad2-2.11.2-1699.2.pm.5.x86_64.rpm
Preloading: librtmp1-2.4.20151223.fa8646d-1699.2.pm.13.x86_64.rpm
Preloading: libavutil58-32bit-6.1.2-1699.4.pm.2.x86_64.rpm
Preloading: libavutil58-32bit-6.1.2-1699.4.pm.2.x86_64.rpm [done]
Preloading: librtmp1-2.4.20151223.fa8646d-1699.2.pm.13.x86_64.rpm [done]
Preloading: libswscale8-32bit-7.1-1699.6.pm.4.x86_64.rpm [done]
Preloading: libfaad2-2.11.2-1699.2.pm.5.x86_64.rpm [done]
Preloading: libx265-209-3.6-1699.2.pm.12.x86_64.rpm [done]
Preload finished. [success (2.0 MiB/s) ] ...........................................................................................................................................[done]
Retrieving: libx265-209-3.6-1699.2.pm.12.x86_64 (Packman Essentials Repository) (1/5), 1.3 MiB
Retrieving: libfaad2-2.11.2-1699.2.pm.5.x86_64 (Packman Essentials Repository) (2/5), 171.6 KiB
Retrieving: librtmp1-2.4.20151223.fa8646d-1699.2.pm.13.x86_64 (Packman Essentials Repository) (3/5), 71.3 KiB
Retrieving: libavutil58-32bit-6.1.2-1699.4.pm.2.x86_64 (Packman Essentials Repository) (4/5), 337.9 KiB
Retrieving: libswscale8-32bit-7.1-1699.6.pm.4.x86_64 (Packman Essentials Repository) (5/5), 185.8 KiB
Checking for file conflicts: .......................................................................................................................................................[done]
(1/5) Installing: libx265-209-3.6-1699.2.pm.12.x86_64 ..............................................................................................................................[done]
(2/5) Installing: libfaad2-2.11.2-1699.2.pm.5.x86_64 ...............................................................................................................................[done]
(3/5) Installing: librtmp1-2.4.20151223.fa8646d-1699.2.pm.13.x86_64 ................................................................................................................[done]
(4/5) Installing: libavutil58-32bit-6.1.2-1699.4.pm.2.x86_64 .......................................................................................................................[done]
(5/5) Installing: libswscale8-32bit-7.1-1699.6.pm.4.x86_64 .........................................................................................................................[done]
Running post-transaction scripts ...................................................................................................................................................[done]
There are running programs which still use files and libraries deleted or updated by recent upgrades. They should be restarted to benefit from the latest updates. Run 'zypper ps -s' to list these programs.
laptopneu:~ #