Troubleshooting Packages

On Photon OS, tdnf is the default package manager. The standard syntax for tdnf commands is the same as that for DNF and Yum:

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

The main configuration files reside in /etc/tdnf/tdnf.conf. The repositories appear in /etc/yum.repos.d/ with .repo file extensions. For more information, see the Photon OS Administration Guide.

The cache files for data and metadata reside in /var/cache/tdnf. The local cache is populated with data from the repository:

ls -l /var/cache/tdnf/photon
total 8
-r--r--r-- 1 root root    0 Apr 20 13:32 lastrefresh
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 20 13:32 repodata
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 20 13:32 solvcache

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. Cleaning the cache can remove stale information. Clear the cache as follows:

tdnf clean all
cleaning photon-iso: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
cleaning photon-release: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
cleaning photon-updates: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
cleaning photon: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
cleaning photon-debuginfo: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
cleaning photon-srpms: metadata dbcache packages keys expire-cache
Done.

Some tdnf commands can help you troubleshoot problems with packages:

• makecache

  This command updates the cached binary metadata for all known repositories. You can run it after you clean the cache to make sure you are working with the latest repository data as you troubleshoot.

  Example:

  tdnf makecache
  Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 5.0 (x86_64) Updates'
  Refreshing metadata for: 'VMware Photon Linux 5.0 (x86_64)'
  Metadata cache created.                   3107 100%
  

• tdnf 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
  

• tdnf provides

  This command finds the packages that provide the package that you supply as an argument. If you are used to a package name for another system, you can use tdnf provides to find the corresponding name of the package on Photon OS.

  Example:

  tdnf provides docker
  docker-23.0.2-1.ph5.x86_64 : Docker
  Repo     : photon
  docker-23.0.1-2.ph5.x86_64 : Docker
  Repo     : photon-updates
  docker-23.0.2-1.ph5.x86_64 : Docker
  Repo     : @System
  

  For a file, you must provide the full path. Example:

  tdnf provides /usr/include/stdio.h
  [using file list match for '/usr/include/stdio.h']
  glibc-devel-2.36-4.ph5.x86_64 : Header files for glibc
  Repo     : photon
  glibc-devel-2.36-3.ph5.x86_64 : Header files for glibc
  Repo     : photon-updates
  

  The following example shows you how to find the package that provides a pluggable authentication module, which you might need to find if the system is mishandling passwords.

  tdnf provides /etc/pam.d/system-account
  [using file list match for '/etc/pam.d/system-account']
  shadow-4.13-3.ph5.x86_64 : Programs for handling passwords in a secure way
  Repo     : photon
  shadow-4.13-3.ph5.x86_64 : Programs for handling passwords in a secure way
  Repo     : photon-updates
  shadow-4.13-3.ph5.x86_64 : Programs for handling passwords in a secure way
  Repo     : @System
  

  For more commands see the Photon OS Administration Guide.

• tdnf reinstall

  If a package that is installed is not working, try re-installing it. Example:

  tdnf reinstall shadow
  Reinstalling:
  shadow                   x86_64             4.13-3.ph5               photon-updates       1.87M           368.07k
  
  Total installed size:   1.87M
  Total download size: 368.07k
  Is this ok [y/N]: y
  shadow                                  376905 100%
  Testing transaction
  Running transaction
  Installing/Updating: shadow-4.13-3.ph5.x86_64
  Removing: shadow-4.13-3.ph5.x86_64