Zypper package argument ambiguity?

peffse

I took the Knowledge Check for section 12 and got the question following question incorrect:

True or False? zypper update does not accept a package as argument.

I answered it does not accept a package as an argument. I got it wrong.

I checked my notes, went back to the course work, and found that there is no mention of an accepted argument for the update command:

Updates all packages on system from a repository:
$ sudo zypper update

I even checked the help section of zypper in OpenSUSE 15.5, and it makes no mention of an accepted argument either:

Update Management:
update, up Update installed packages with newer versions.
list-updates, lu List available updates.
patch Install needed patches.
list-patches, lp List available patches.
dist-upgrade, dup Perform a distribution upgrade.
patch-check, pchk Check for patches.

I assumed that since dnf [11] previously explicitely mentioned an optional arguement, that the lack of one given during this lesson meant that it does not accept a package as an argument.

Update a package from a repository (if no package is listed, update all packages):
$ sudo dnf update [package]

I ran the zypper command with the package argument, and it does indeed accept it.

I eventually found the issue... the lab that asks you to update a specific package.
The course teaches you to update a package using the install command, not update.

Installs or updates a package on the system:
$ sudo zypper install firefox

So I didn't catch that the answer in the lab is slightly different, because I successfully updated the package using install and didn't check the lab syntax to see that update was used instead.

Is there a specific reason the knowledge is relegated to a lab answer? It might be worth updating the verbiage on one or two of those command descriptions, as the lab answer seems to come out of nowhere.

fcioanca

Hi @peffse

Thank you for your feedback. We will consider it when working on the next course update.

Regards,
Flavia
Linux Foundation Education Team

luisviveropena

Hi @peffse,

Yes, 'zypper update' can accept arguments. And there isn't any ambiguity about this. Look at the man page for zypper, from https://en.opensuse.org/Archive:Zypper_manual_(plain)

update (up) [options] [packagename]...
Update installed packages with newer versions, where possible. + This command will not update packages
which would require change of package vendor unless the vendor is specified in /etc/zypp/vendors.d, or
which would require manual resolution of problems with dependencies. Such non-installable updates will
then be listed in separate section of the summary as "The following package updates will NOT be
installed:". + To update individual packages, specify one or more package names. You can use the * and ?
wildcard characters in the package names to specify multiple packages matching the pattern.

In fact I made a test on my openSUSE Leap 16.0 system:

So first I took a look at what packages are ready to update:

luis@opensuse:~> zypper list-updates
Cargando datos del repositorio...
Leyendo los paquetes instalados...
S | Repository | Name | Current Version | Available Version | Arch
---+----------------------+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+-------
v | repo-oss (16.0) | avahi | 0.8-160000.2.2 | 0.8-160000.4.1 | x86_64
v | repo-oss (16.0) | bind-utils | 9.20.11-160000.2.2 | 9.20.18-160000.1.1 | x86_64
v | repo-oss (16.0) | branding-openSUSE | 16.0.20240405-lp160.9.1 | 16.0.20240405-lp160.10.1 | x86_64
v | repo-oss (16.0) | colord | 1.4.6-160000.2.2 | 1.4.8-160000.1.1 | x86_64
v | repo-oss (16.0) | colord-color-profiles | 1.4.6-160000.2.2 | 1.4.8-160000.1.1 | x86_64
v | repo-oss (16.0) | curl | 8.14.1-160000.2.2 | 8.14.1-160000.4.1 | x86_64

Then I choose 'curl' to update it:

luis@opensuse:~> sudo zypper update curl
[sudo] contraseña para luis:
Actualizando el servicio 'openSUSE'.
Cargando datos del repositorio...
Leyendo los paquetes instalados...
Resolviendo dependencias de paquete...

El siguiente paquete va a ser actualizado:
curl

1 paquete a actualizar.

Tamaño de la descarga del paquete: 585,1 KiB

Cambio de tamaño de la instalación del paquete:
| 558,1 KiB requerido por los paquetes que se instalarán
603 B | - 557,5 KiB liberados por los paquetes que van a ser eliminados

Backend: classic_rpmtrans
¿Desea continuar? [s/n/v/...? mostrar todas las opciones] (s): s
Precargando: curl-8.14.1-160000.4.1.x86_64.rpm [terminado]
Precarga finalizada. [correcto (200,0 KiB/s) ] ........................................................................................................................[terminado]
Obteniendo: curl-8.14.1-160000.4.1.x86_64 (repo-oss (16.0)) (1/1), 585,1 KiB

Buscando conflictos de archivos: ......................................................................................................................................[terminado]
(1/1) Instalando: curl-8.14.1-160000.4.1.x86_64 .......................................................................................................................[terminado]
Ejecutando guiones postransacción .....................................................................................................................................[terminado]

luis@opensuse:~>

I hope this helps

Regards,
Luis.

peffse

Oh, I think there might have been a misunderstanding. I was asking why the lesson does not actually include this information.