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Package Management in Photon OS with `tdnf`

Photon OS manages packages with an open source, yum-compatible package manager called tdnf, for Tiny Dandified Yum. Tdnf keeps the operating system as small as possible while preserving yum’s robust package-management capabilities.

1 - Introduction to 'tdnf'

On Photon OS, tdnf is the default package manager for installing new packages. It is a C implementation of the DNF package manager without Python dependencies. DNF is the next upcoming major version of yum.

Tdnf appears in the minimal and full versions of Photon OS. Tdnf reads yum repositories and works like yum. The full version of Photon OS also includes yum, and you can install packages by using yum if you want.

In the minimal version of Photon OS, you can manage packages by using yum, but you must install it first by running the following tdnf command as root:

tdnf install yum

Tdnf implements a subset of the dnf commands as listed in the dnf guide.

2 - Configuration Files and Repositories

The main configuration files reside in /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf. The configuration file appears as follows:

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 following 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
photon-updates      VMware Photon Linux 2.0(x86_64)Updates  enabled
photon-extras       VMware Photon Extras 2.0(x86_64)        enabled
photon              VMware Photon Linux 2.0(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. The photon-iso.repo is the default repository and it points to /media/cdrom. The photon-iso.repo appears as follows:

cat /etc/yum.repos.d/photon-iso.repo
[photon-iso]
name=VMWare Photon Linux 2.0(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 doing so might slow the performance of tdnf until the cache becomes repopulated with data. To clear the cache, use the following command:

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

3 - Adding a New Repository

On Photon OS, you can add a new repository from which tdnf installs packages. To add a new repository, 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 is 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 the /etc/yum.repos.d directory:

ls /etc/yum.repos.d/
lightwave.repo
photon-extras.repo
photon-iso.repo
photon-updates.repo
photon.repo

To view the the format and information that a new repository configuration file should contain, see one of the .repo files. The following is an example:

cat /etc/yum.repos.d/lightwave.repo
[lightwave]
name=VMware Lightwave 1.0(x86_64)
baseurl=https://packages.vmware.com/photon/1.0/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.

You can use the skip metadata download settings to skip the download of metadata files for repositories with a lot of packages. When you skip the download of the metadata files, it improves the download time of the packages and the processing time of refreshing the cache.

The following list describes the skip metadata settings:

  • skip_md_filelists: The skip_md_filelists=1 setting deactivates the download of the complete list of files in all packages. The default value is 0.

  • skip_md_updateinfo: The skip_md_updateinfo=1 setting deactivates the download of the update info data. The setting improves the download and processing time but affects the output of the updateinfo command. The default value is 0.

Other options and variables can appear in the repository file. The variables that are used 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

The following 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 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:

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.

4 - Configure a Repository

Photon OS comes with a preconfigured repository called photon-iso that resides in \etc\yum.repos.d. If you receive an access error message when working with the photon-iso repository, it is probably because you do not have the Photon OS ISO mounted. Mount the ISO and the run the following command to update the metadata for all known repositories, including photon-iso:

mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
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.

5 - Adding the Dev Repository to Get New Packages from the GitHub Dev Branch

To try out new packages or the latest versions of existing packages as they are merged into the dev branch of the Photon OS GitHub site, add the dev repository to your repository list.

Perform th following steps:

  1. On your Photon OS machine, run the following command as root to create a repository configuration file named photon-dev.repo, place it in /etc/yum.repos.d, and concatenate the repository information into the file.
cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/photon-dev.repo << "EOF" 
    [photon-dev]
    name=VMware Photon Linux Dev(x86_64)
    baseurl=https://dl.bintray.com/vmware/photon_dev_$basearch
    gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/VMWARE-RPM-GPG-KEY
    gpgcheck=1
    enabled=1
    skip_if_unavailable=True
    EOF
  1. After establishing a new repository, run the following command to update the cached binary metadata for the repositories that tdnf polls:
tdnf makecache

6 - Standard Syntax for tdnf Commands

The standard syntax for tdnf commands is the same as that for DNF and is as follows:

tdnf [options] <command> [<arguments>...]

You can view help information by using the following commands:

tdnf --help
tdnf -h

6.1 - tndf Commands

check: Checks for problems in installed and available packages for all enabled repositories. The command has no arguments. You can use --enablerepo and --disablerepo to control the repos used. Supported in Photon OS 2.0 (only).

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 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. The following is an 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. The following is an 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. The following is an example:

tdnf downgrade boost-1.56.0-2.ph1

erase: This command removes the package that you specify as an argument.

To remove a package, run the following command:

tdnf erase pkgname

The following is an 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. The following are 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.

To install a package, run the following command:

tdnf install pkgname

The following are 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

To list enabled repositories, run the following command:

tdnf repolist

makecache: This command updates the cached binary metadata for all known repositories. The following is an 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. The following is an example:

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. The following is an 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. The following is an example:

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. The following is an 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. EThe following is an example:

tdnf upgrade-to ruby2.3

The commands and options of tdnf are a subset of those of dnf. For more help with tdnf commands, see the DNF documentation.

6.2 - tndf Command Options

You can add the following options to tdnf commands. If the option to override a configuration is unavailable in a command, you can add it to the /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf configuration file.

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
-q, --quiet                Quiet operation

The following 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