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On Photon OS, Tiny DNF is the default package manager for installing new packages. This document explains how to use tdnf when it is running on Photon OS.
If, however, you have installed tdnf on a Linux distribution other than Photon OS, most of the commands and options should work in the same way, with the exception of the repository locations. You will have to set up your own repository; see the section near the end of this document on adding a new repository. A quick solution is to download and install the Photon OS repository package from the Photon OS GitHub site.
Tdnf is a C implementation of DNF package manager. The standard syntax for tdnf commands is the same as that for DNF:
tdnf [options] <command> [<arguments>...]
You can view its help information like this:
tdnf --help
tdnf -h
In the minimal version of Photon OS, tdnf serves as the sole package manager to streamline the operating system. The full version of Photon OS includes yum, a common utility that checks for, downloads, and automatically installs RPM packages. On the minimal version of Photon OS, you can install yum by using tdnf if you are unconcerned with the size of the operating system:
tdnf install yum
The main configuration files reside in /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf. The configuration file looks like this:
cat /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf
[main]
gpgcheck=1
installonly_limit=3
clean_requirements_on_remove=true
repodir=/etc/yum.repos.d
cachedir=/var/cache/tdnf
The cache files for data and metadata reside in /var/cache/tdnf.
The repositories appear in /etc/yum.repos.d/ with .repo file extensions:
ls /etc/yum.repos.d/
lightwave.repo
photon-extras.repo
photon-iso.repo
photon-updates.repo
photon.repo
You can list the the repositories by using the tdnf repolist command. Tdnf filters the results with enabled, disabled, and all. Running the command without specifying an argument returns the enabled repositories:
tdnf repolist
repo id repo name status
lightwave VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64) enabled
photon-updates VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)Updates enabled
photon-extras VMware Photon Extras 1.0(x86_64) enabled
photon VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64) enabled
The photon-iso.repo, however, does not appear in the list of repositories because it is unavailable on the virtual machine from which these examples are taken. Photon-iso.repo is the default repository; it points to /media/cdrom. The contents of photon-iso.repo look like this:
cat /etc/yum.repos.d/photon-iso.repo
[photon-iso]
name=VMWare Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)
baseurl=file:///mnt/cdrom/RPMS
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/VMWARE-RPM-GPG-KEY
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
skip_if_unavailable=True
The local cache is populated with data from the repository:
ls -l /var/cache/tdnf/photon
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 18 22:52 repodata
d-wxr----t 3 root root 4096 May 3 22:51 rpms
You can clear the cache to help troubleshoot a problem, but keep in mind that doing so might slow the performance of tdnf until the cache becomes repopulated with data. Here is how to clear the cache:
tdnf clean all
Cleaning repos: photon photon-extras photon-updates lightwave
Cleaning up everything
The command purges the repository data from the cache:
ls -l /var/cache/tdnf/photon
total 4
d-wxr----t 3 root root 4096 May 3 22:51 rpms
You can add the following options to tdnf commands. If the option to override a configuration is unavailable in a command, consider adding it to the configuration file, /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf.
OPTION DESCRIPTION
--allowerasing Allow erasing of installed packages to resolve dependencies
--assumeno Answer no for all questions
--best Try the best available package versions in transactions
--debugsolver Dump data aiding in dependency solver debugging info.
--disablerepo=<repoid> Disable specific repositories by an id or a glob.
--enablerepo=<repoid> Enable specific repositories
-h, --help Display help
--refresh Set metadata as expired before running command
--nogpgcheck Skip gpg check on packages
--rpmverbosity=<debug level name> Debug level for rpm
--version Print version and exit
-y, --assumeyes Answer yes to all questions
Here is an example that adds the short form of the assumeyes option to the install command:
tdnf -y install gcc
Upgrading:
gcc x86_64 5.3.0-1.ph1 91.35 M
check-local: This command resolves dependencies by using the local RPMs to help check RPMs for quality assurance before publishing them. To check RPMs with this command, you must create a local directory and place your RPMs in it. The command, which includes no options, takes the path to the local directory containing the RPMs as its argument. The command does not, however, recursively parse directories; it checks the RPMs only in the directory that you specify. For example, after creating a directory named /tmp/myrpms and placing your RPMs in it, you can run the following command to check them:
tdnf check-local /tmp/myrpms
Checking all packages from: /tmp/myrpms
Found 10 packages
Check completed without issues
check-update: This command checks for updates to packages. It takes no arguments. The tdnf list updates command performs the same function. Here is an example of the check update command:
tdnf check-update
rpm-devel.x86_64 4.11.2-8.ph1 photon
yum.noarch 3.4.3-3.ph1 photon
clean: This command cleans up temporary files, data, and metadata. It takes the argument all. Example:
tdnf clean all
Cleaning repos: photon photon-extras photon-updates lightwave
Cleaning up everything
distro-sync: This command synchronizes the machine's RPMs with the latest version of all the packages in the repository. Abridged example:
tdnf distro-sync
Upgrading:
zookeeper x86_64 3.4.8-2.ph1 3.38 M
yum noarch 3.4.3-3.ph1 4.18 M
Total installed size: 113.01 M
Reinstalling:
zlib-devel x86_64 1.2.8-2.ph1 244.25 k
zlib x86_64 1.2.8-2.ph1 103.93 k
yum-metadata-parser x86_64 1.1.4-1.ph1 57.10 k
Total installed size: 1.75 G
Obsoleting:
tftp x86_64 5.2-3.ph1 32.99 k
Total installed size: 32.99 k
Is this ok [y/N]:
downgrade: This command downgrades the package that you specify as an argument to the next lower package version. Example:
tdnf downgrade boost
Downgrading:
boost x86_64 1.56.0-2.ph1 8.20 M
Total installed size: 8.20 M
Is this ok [y/N]:y
Downloading:
boost 2591470 100%
Testing transaction
Running transaction
Complete!
To downgrade to a version lower than the next one, you must specify it by name, epoch, version, and release, all properly hyphenated. Example:
tdnf downgrade boost-1.56.0-2.ph1
erase: This command removes the package that you specify as an argument. Example:
tdnf erase vim
Removing:
vim x86_64 7.4-4.ph1 1.94 M
Total installed size: 1.94 M
Is this ok [y/N]:
You can also erase multiple packages:
tdnf erase docker cloud-init
info: This command displays information about packages. It can take the name of a package. Or it can take one of the following arguments: all, available, installed, extras, obsoletes, recent, upgrades. Examples:
tdnf info ruby
tdnf info obsoletes
tdnf info upgrades
install: This command takes the name of a package as its argument. It then installs the package and its dependencies. Examples:
tdnf install kubernetes
You can also install multiple packages:
tdnf install python-curses lsof audit gettext chkconfig ntsysv bindutils
wget gawk irqbalance lvm2 cifs-utils c-ares distrib-compat
list: This command lists the packages of the package that you specify as the argument. The command can take one of the following arguments: all, available, installed, extras, obsoletes, recent, upgrades.
tdnf list updates
The list of packages might be long. To more easily view it, you can concatenate it into a text file, and then open the text file in a text editor:
tdnf list all > pkgs.txt
vi pkgs.txt
makecache: This command updates the cached binary metadata for all known repositories. Example:
tdnf makecache
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)Updates'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Extras 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)'
Metadata cache created.
provides: This command finds the packages that provide the package that you supply as an argument. Examples:
tdnf provides docker
docker-1.11.0-1.ph1.x86_64 : Docker
Repo : photon
docker-1.11.0-1.ph1.x86_64 : Docker
Repo : @System
reinstall: This command reinstalls the packages that you specify. If some packages are unavailable or not installed, the command fails. Example:
tdnf reinstall docker kubernetes
Reinstalling:
kubernetes x86_64 1.1.8-1.ph1 152.95 M
docker x86_64 1.11.0-1.ph1 57.20 M
Total installed size: 210.15 M
remove: This command removes a package. When removing a package, tdnf by default also removes dependencies that are no longer used if they were was installed by tdnf as a dependency without being explicitly requested by a user. You can modify the dependency removal by changing the clean_requirements_on_remove option in /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf to false.
tdnf remove packagename
search: This command searches for the attributes of packages. The argument can be the names of packages, as this example testifies:
tdnf search docker kubernetes
docker : Docker
docker : Docker
docker-debuginfo : Debug information for package docker
docker : Docker
kubernetes : Kubernetes cluster management
kubernetes : Kubernetes cluster management
kubernetes-debuginfo : Debug information for package kubernetes
kubernetes : Kubernetes cluster management
The argument of the search command can also be a keyword or a combination of keywords and packages:
tdnf search terminal bash
rubygem-terminal-table : Simple, feature rich ascii table generation library
ncurses : Libraries for terminal handling of character screens
mingetty : A minimal getty program for virtual terminals
ncurses : Libraries for terminal handling of character screens
ncurses : Libraries for terminal handling of character screens
bash : Bourne-Again SHell
bash-lang : Additional language files for bash
bash-lang : Additional language files for bash
bash : Bourne-Again SHell
bash-debuginfo : Debug information for package bash
bash : Bourne-Again SHell
bash-lang : Additional language files for bash
upgrade: This command upgrades the package or packages that you specify to an available higher version that tdnf can resolve. If the package is already the latest version, the command returns Nothing to do. Example:
tdnf upgrade boost
Upgrading:
boost x86_64 1.60.0-1.ph1 8.11 M
Total installed size: 8.11 M
Is this ok [y/N]:y
Downloading:
boost 2785950 100%
Testing transaction
Running transaction
Complete!
You can also run the upgrade command with the refresh option to update the cached metadata with the latest information from the repositories. The following example refreshes the metadata and then checks for a new version of tdnf but does not find one, so tdnf takes no action:
tdnf upgrade tdnf --refresh
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)Updates'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Extras 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)'
Nothing to do.
upgrade-to: This command upgrades to the version of the package that you specify. Example:
tdnf upgrade-to ruby2.3
The commands and options of tdnf are, at present, a subset of those of dnf. For more help with tdnf commands, see the DNF documentation.
With Photon OS, you can add a new repository from which tdnf installs packages. To do so, you create a repository configuration file with a .repo extension and place it in /etc/yum.repos.d. The repository can be on either the Internet or a local server containing your in-house applications.
Be careful if you add a repository that's on the Internet: Installing packages from untrusted or unverified sources might put the security, stability, or compatibility of your system at risk. It might also make your system harder to maintain.
On Photon OS, the existing repositories appear in /etc/yum.repos.d:
ls /etc/yum.repos.d/
lightwave.repo
photon-extras.repo
photon-iso.repo
photon-updates.repo
photon.repo
Looking at one of the .repo files reveals the format and information that a new repository configuration file should contain:
cat /etc/yum.repos.d/lightwave.repo
[lightwave]
name=VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64)
baseurl=https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/lightwave
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/VMWARE-RPM-GPG-KEY
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
skip_if_unavailable=True
The minimal information needed to establish a repository is an ID and human-readable name of the repository and its base URL. The ID, which appears in square brackets, must be one word that is unique amoung the system's repositories; in the example above, it is [lightwave].
The baseurl is a URL for the repository's repodata directory. For a repository on a local server that can be accessed directly or mounted as a file system, the base URL can be a file referenced by file://. Example:
baseurl=file:///server/repo/
The gpgcheck setting specifies whether to check the GPG signature. The gpgkey setting furnishes the URL for the repository's ASCII-armored GPG key file. Tdnf uses the GPG key to verify a package if its key has not been imported into the RPM database.
The enabled setting tells tdnf whether to poll the repository. If enabled is set to 1, tdnf polls it; if it is set to 0, tdnf ignores it.
The skip_if_unavailable setting instructs tdnf to continue running if the repository goes offline.
Other options and variables can appear in the repository file. The variables that go with some of the options can reduce future changes to the repository configuration files. There are variables to replace the value of the version of the package and to replace the base architecture. For more information, see the man page for yum.conf on the full version of Photon OS: man yum.conf
Here is an example of how to add a new repository for a local server that tdnf polls for packages:
cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/apps.repo << "EOF"
[localapps]
name=Local In-House Applications(x86_64)
baseurl=file:///appserver/apps
enabled=1
skip_if_unavailable=True
EOF
Because this new repository resides on a local server, make sure the Photon OS machine can connect to it by, for instance, mounting it.
After establishing a new repository, you must run the following command to update the cached binary metadata for the repositories that tdnf polls. Example:
tdnf makecache
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)Updates'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Extras 1.0(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'Local In-House Applications(x86_64)'
Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 1.0(x86_64)'
Metadata cache created.