Package management with zypper

While openSUSE using YaST for graphical packagement it also has an excelent commandline tool called zypper which has similar functionality to Ubuntu’s apt-get but some extra tools which can be really usefull.

To launch zypper in shell mode (all future commands will be passed to zypper as options, so instead of typing zypper in you only need to type in):

zypper shell

or

zypper sh

zypper shell

Some basic tips for using zypper:

• To search for programs use search or se
• To install programs use install or in
• To remove programs use remove or rm
• To refresh repos use refresh
• To specify the type use -t <type> (e.g. pattern )
• Use + or - on the end of an install or remove to do 2 actions in one action (e.g. in emacs -vim to simultaneously install emacs and remove vim)
• Use source-install or si to install the source of a package and all build dependencies (si -d for build dependencies only or si -D for source only)
• To list any updates use list-updates or lu and update or up to install them
• Use exit to leave the shell

For more help on the zypper command use:

man zypper

or look here:

http://en.opensuse.org/Zypper/Usage