Anything I install I like to have saved so I always download any rpm before installation. Before coming across zypper, and since I’m still “new” to linux, I always downloaded one rpm at a time and then used the rpm command to install, carefully going through any dependency errors. As you can imagine this can become unnecessarily tedious.
All that aside, now that I’m more familiar with zypper I know it’s exactly what I want and I think it’s great! My question is this… I’ve already downloaded some rpms but haven’t finished resolving the dependencies. How can I use zypper to finish the job for me without having to re-download what I’ve already downloaded?
One idea I have is to add the directory containing the rpms as a repo (and give it a higher priority?) and continue from there?
So far what I know is to enable caching of the repos and use ‘zypper up --dry-run <package>’ and then to fetch the rpms from the cache directory.
Any ideas?
zypper can also install local rpm packages (and will fetch dependencies automatically).
zypper install /path/to/rpm/foo.rpm
Still I don’t see the point on making things a lot more complicated than they need to be.
My question is this… I’ve already downloaded some rpms but haven’t finished resolving the dependencies. How can I use zypper to finish the job for me without having to re-download what I’ve already downloaded?
Assuming that all packages you already downloaded are suitable for your distribution (if not, stop right now), do this once and then never again, package managers like zypper are exactly designed to do this job for you.
Very often people download what they just find and most times they will download packages not suitable for their distribution, the safe way would be to not use any of your downloaded packages and rely only on your package manager (in this case zypper) to do it right.
IMHO methods like this come from the Redmond area. Please use the package manager to safely install, update and uninstall stuff on your system. It will find the dependencies for you.
Well, I like to have my own “collection”. Another reason I do this is because I have another computer without access to the internet, so…
It’s also very tiring.
I have to start somewhere.
Exactly why I’m appreciating zypper all the more!
Not in my case. I pay close attention to this issue, though I still don’t understand the differences between packages built for 11.0 or 11.1! Though I’m sure if I google for the answer it will pop up sooner or later, just haven’t done so yet.
Agreed!
The main reason for my asking is to learn. The more you know…
Agreed!
Thanks, I’ll get on to this tomorrow as I’m a bit tired and it’s getting late for me.
Thanks for the replies I’ve gotten so far, really appreciate them!!!
In openSUSE you can do almost any system administrative job through Yast (Yet another setup tool). From software management to partitioning, from firewall to user management, from hardware info to webserver, all happens in Yast.
The time us linux geeks were doing everything in a terminal is way past. Use Yast first, only touch the system by hand if you know what you’re doing. It will keep you away from a lot of potential trouble. Mind, you issue commands as root. Commands issued as root are always immediately true. So, use Yast
