Hello. This time, I’d like to introduce a collection of useful commands for zypper, the package manager used by openSUSE.
Although openSUSE is a major Linux distribution, particularly in Europe, I feel that there is relatively little information about it available compared to Ubuntu or Fedora. In this article, I’ve gathered some commonly used commands for the openSUSE command-line package manager, zypper.
Updated: June 2026
Essential zypper Commands for Everyday Use
Like dnf, apt, and pacman, zypper is a package manager used to manage software packages, repositories, and various aspects of the system. However, its functionality is extensive, and it would be difficult to cover everything in a single article.
Instead, this guide focuses on the commands that are most useful in day-to-day administration, such as updating the system and installing packages. If you’d like to learn more about zypper, you can consult its documentation with the following commands:
man zypper
or
zypper help
About the Command Notation Used in This Article
About Abbreviated Commands
Many zypper commands have both a full name and an abbreviated form. For example, update can be shortened to up, and list-updates to lu.
Users familiar with Gentoo Linux and its emerge command may find this style familiar and convenient. However, abbreviated commands can also be confusing for beginners and may create the impression that there is a lot to memorize.
For that reason, this article uses only the full command names. Once you become comfortable with zypper, learning the abbreviated forms can make command-line work even more efficient.
Commands That Require Root Privileges
On openSUSE, administrative tasks can be performed using sudo. Commands that require elevated privileges are shown with sudo throughout this article.
Basic Package Management
These are the fundamental commands used to search for, install, remove, and inspect packages.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Update packages (also refreshes repositories) | sudo zypper update |
| Search for a package | zypper search [package-name] |
| Install a package | sudo zypper install [package-name] |
| Remove a package | sudo zypper remove [package-name] |
| Display package information | zypper info [package-name] |
Basic Repository Management
These commands are used to manage software repositories.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| List configured repositories | zypper repos |
| Add a repository | sudo zypper addrepo <URI> <alias> |
| Remove a repository | sudo zypper removerepo [repository-name] |
| Rename a repository | sudo zypper renamerepo <existing-alias> <new-alias> |
| Modify repository settings | sudo zypper modifyrepo [option] [repository-name] |
| Refresh repositories | sudo zypper refresh |
Useful Commands Worth Remembering
Here are some additional commands that can be helpful in everyday use.
(Additional commands were added in June 2026.)
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Display zypper help | zypper help |
| Display help for a specific zypper command | zypper help [command-name] |
| Clear the local cache | sudo zypper clean |
| Show available package updates | zypper list-updates |
| Perform a distribution upgrade | sudo zypper dist-upgrade |
| List installed packages | zypper search --installed-only |
| Lock a package | sudo zypper addlock [package-name] |
| Remove a package lock | sudo zypper removelock [package-name] |
| Display detailed repository information | zypper repos --details |
Commands You May Not Use Often
These commands may not be part of your daily workflow, but they can be useful when troubleshooting or performing advanced maintenance.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Download an RPM package | zypper download [package-name] |
| Verify and repair broken dependencies | sudo zypper verify |
| Reinstall a package without considering dependency status | sudo zypper install --force [package-name] |
Final Thoughts
To avoid any misunderstanding, I’d like to emphasize that openSUSE is a beginner-friendly Linux distribution.
YaST (Yet another Setup Tool), one of the core components of the SUSE ecosystem, includes a graphical package management interface. Just like Ubuntu or Fedora, users can install and remove software through a GUI without relying solely on the command line.
I hope to cover YaST in more detail in a future article.
Note: The commands in this article are available on both openSUSE Leap and openSUSE Tumbleweed.
