carapace-sh DNF5 In-Depth Reference
DNF5 is the next-generation RPM package manager for Fedora/RHEL, rewritten in C++ (C++20) for better performance and fewer external dependencies. It consists of the dnf5 CLI, the libdnf5 core library, the libdnf5-cli CLI helper, a two-tier plugin system, and dnf5daemon (D-Bus daemon).
Data Flow
dnf5 <command> [options] [args]
→ logger setup, Base creation, command registration
→ plugin loading (dnf5 active + libdnf5 passive)
→ argument parsing, config loading
→ repo sack creation, repo loading, Vars substitution
→ goal resolution, transaction table
→ download, GPG check, RPM transaction
→ system state update
Sub-Resources
Load the reference that matches your task. When in doubt, load multiple references.
| Keywords | Reference |
|---|---|
| CLI, commands, options, flags, synopsis, exit codes, environment variables, assumeyes, assumeno, quiet, exclude, repo, setopt, setvar, repofrompath, releasever, installroot, forcearch, refresh, cacheonly, color, version, comment, dump-main-config | references/cli.md |
| configuration, dnf.conf, config options, main section, repo options, color options, option types, boolean, integer, storage size, drop-in directories, repos.override.d, varsdir, reposdir, pluginconfpath, pluginpath, cachedir, system_cachedir, persistdir, protected_packages, installonlypkgs, tsflags, metadata_expire, zchunk, multilib_policy, obsoletes, best, skip_broken, skip_unavailable, allow_downgrade, allow_vendor_change, vendor change policy, group_package_types, optional_metadata_types | references/configuration.md |
| workflow, lifecycle, execution flow, hooks, pre_base_setup, post_base_setup, repos_configured, repos_loaded, pre_add_cmdline_packages, post_add_cmdline_packages, goal_resolved, pre_transaction, post_transaction, finish, init, create_commands, pre_configure, configure, load_additional_packages, run, goal_resolved step | references/workflow.md |
| plugins, dnf5 plugins, libdnf5 plugins, active plugins, passive plugins, IPlugin, IPlugin2_1, plugin API versioning, PluginAPIVersion, PluginVersion, LibraryVersion, DNF5_PLUGINS_DIR, LIBDNF_PLUGINS_CONFIG_DIR, actions plugin, appstream plugin, expired-pgp-keys, rhsm, local plugin, python_plugins_loader, CMakeLists.txt, dnf5_plugin_get_api_version, libdnf_plugin_get_api_version | references/plugins.md |
| daemon, dnf5daemon, D-Bus, dbus, SessionManager, open_session, close_session, polkit, PolicyKit, org.rpm.dnf.v0, Rpm interface, Repo interface, Goal interface, Base interface, Offline interface, Advisory interface, History interface, comps.Group interface, transaction signals, download signals, dnf5daemon-server, dnf5daemon-client | references/daemon.md |
| specs, NEVRA, NEVR, provides, file provides, binaries, globs, glob patterns, package-spec, group-spec, environment-spec, module-spec, NSVCA, transaction-spec, partial matching, epoch, version, release, arch, noarch, src, rich dependencies | references/specs.md |
| modularity, modulemd, module stream, active stream, inactive stream, default stream, enabled stream, module_hotfixes, modular filtering, demodularized, orphaned modular packages, fail-safe, modulefailsafe, module_platform_id, module_stream_switch | references/modularity.md |
| caching, cache, metadata, cacheonly, keepcache, build_cache, solv, repodata, temporary_files.toml, metadata_expire, optional metadata, filelists, comps, updateinfo, presto, other, metadata types, cache sharing, copy-on-write | references/caching.md |
| migration, dnf4, DNF4, changes from dnf, dropped options, renamed options, new options, command changes, API changes, configuration changes, strict deprecated, deltarpm deprecated, best default true, cacheonly enum, migrating to dnf5, Fedora migration | references/migration.md |
| libdnf5, library architecture, Base, Goal, Transaction, PackageQuery, PackageSet, Package, Repo, RepoSack, RepoQuery, ConfigMain, ConfigRepo, ConfigParser, Vars, advisory, comps, rpm, module, transaction history, system state, NEVRA, reldep, arch, changelog, checksum, rpm_signature, versionlock_config, solv, libsolv | references/libdnf5.md |
| build, CMake, CMakeLists.txt, build options, WITH_DNF5, WITH_DNF5DAEMON_SERVER, WITH_MODULEMD, WITH_TESTS, WITH_PYTHON3, WITH_PERL5, WITH_RUBY, WITH_GO, WITH_PLUGIN_ACTIONS, WITH_PLUGIN_RHSM, sanitizers, clang-format, clang-tidy, dependencies, libsolv, librepo, sdbus-cpp, fmt, librpm | references/build.md |
| aliases, TOML, command alias, cloned_named_arg, named_arg, group, aliases.d, value_help, attached_command, attached_named_args, required_values, complete, group_id, descr | references/aliases.md |
| comps, groups, environments, mandatory, default, optional, conditional, group_package_types, with-optional, no-packages, group install, group remove, environment install | references/comps.md |
| filtering, excludepkgs, includepkgs, disable_excludes, user excludes, versionlock filtering, modular filtering, module_hotfixes | references/filtering.md |
| system-state, system_state_dir, TOML, package reasons, install reason, user, dependency, weak dependency, group, external, corrupted state, regeneration | references/system-state.md |
| installroot, --installroot, use-host-config, path resolution, chroot, releasever detection, module_platform_id | references/installroot.md |
| forcearch, --forcearch, architecture override, arch, basearch, qemu-user-static | references/forcearch.md |
| repo variables, $arch, $basearch, $releasever, $releasever_major, $releasever_minor, DNF_VAR_, varsdir, variable files, DNF0-DNF9, vars substitution | references/repo-variables.md |
Quick Guide
- What CLI commands and options does dnf5 have? → references/cli.md
- How do I configure dnf5? → references/configuration.md
- What is the execution lifecycle of a dnf5 command? → references/workflow.md
- How do I write a dnf5 or libdnf5 plugin? → references/plugins.md
- How does the dnf5daemon D-Bus API work? → references/daemon.md
- What package spec formats does dnf5 accept? → references/specs.md
- How does modularity work in dnf5? → references/modularity.md
- How does caching work? → references/caching.md
- What changed from DNF4 to DNF5? → references/migration.md
- What is the libdnf5 library architecture? → references/libdnf5.md
- How do I build dnf5 from source? → references/build.md
- How do command-line aliases work? → references/aliases.md
- How do comps groups and environments work? → references/comps.md
- How does package filtering work? → references/filtering.md
- What is the dnf5 system state? → references/system-state.md
- How does --installroot work? → references/installroot.md
- How does --forcearch work? → references/forcearch.md
- What repo variables are available? → references/repo-variables.md
Cross-Project References
- For RPM package format internals (spec files, macros, headers), see the RPM project documentation at https://rpm.org/.
- For libsolv (the dependency solver used by dnf5), see https://github.com/openSUSE/libsolver.
- For librepo (repository downloading library), see https://github.com/rpm-software-management/librepo.
- For modulemd specification, see https://github.com/fedora-modularity/libmodulemd.
- For the existing dnf completer in carapace-bin, see
completers/linux/dnf_completer/.