dnf

The dnf module offers pseudo-declarative package and repository management using dnf5.

Features

This module is capable of:

• Repository Management
  • Enabling/disabling COPR repos
  • Adding repo files via url or local files
  • Removing repos by specifying the repo name
  • Automatically cleaning up any repos added in the module
  • Adding keys for repos via url or local files
  • Adding non-free repos like rpmfusion and negativo17
• Package Management
  • Installing packages from RPM urls, local RPM files, or package repositories
  • Installing packages from a specific repository
  • Removing packages
  • Replacing installed packages with versions from another repository
• Optfix
  • Setup symlinks to /opt/ to allow certain packages to install

Repository Management

Add Repository Files

• Add repos from
  • any https:// or http:// URL
  • any .repo files located in ./files/dnf/ of your image repo
• If the OS version is included in the file name or URL, you can substitute it with the %OS_VERSION% magic string
  • The version is gathered from the VERSION_ID field of /usr/lib/os-release

type: dnf
repos:
  files:
    - https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo
    - custom-file.repo # file path for /files/dnf/custom-file.repo

Add COPR Repositories

• COPR contains software repositories maintained by fellow Fedora users
• The chroot can be specified for the repo. The chroot is basically the OS in which the package was built.

type: dnf
repos:
  copr:
    - atim/starship
    - name: trixieua/mutter-patched
      chroot: fedora-42-x86_64

Disable/Enable Repositories

type: dnf
repos:
  files:
    add:
      - repo1
      - repo2
    remove:
      - repo3
  copr:
    enable:
      - ryanabx/cosmic-epoch
      - name: trixieua/mutter-patched
        chroot: fedora-42-x86_64
    disable:
      - kylegospo/oversteer

Add Repository Keys

type: dnf
repos:
  keys:
    - https://example.com/repo-1.asc
    - key2.asc

Add Non-free Repositories

This allows you to add a commonly used non-free repository. You can choose between negativo17 and rpmfusion. Your choice will also disable the opposite repository if it was already enabled.

type: dnf
repos:
  nonfree: negativo17

Options

There is currently only one option that can be specified in the repository management section.

• cleanup automatically cleans up repositories added in this section
  • Disabled by default

type: dnf
repos:
  cleanup: true

Package Management

Installing

Packages from Any Repository

type: dnf
install:
  packages:
    - package-1
    - package-2

Exclude packages

Optionally prevent packages from being installed. This is useful when a package pulls in another package as a dependency that you don’t want to install.

type: dnf
install:
  packages:
    - niri
  exclude:
    - alacritty
    - waybar
    - fuzzel

Packages from URL or File

• If the OS version is included in the file name or URL, you can substitute it with the %OS_VERSION% magic string
  • The version is gathered from the VERSION_ID field of /usr/lib/os-release

type: dnf
install:
  packages:
    - https://example.com/package-%OS_VERSION%.rpm
    - custom-file.rpm # install files/dnf/custom-file.rpm from the image repository

Packages from Specific Repositories

• Set repo to the name of the RPM repository, not the name or URL of the repo file

type: dnf
install:
  packages:
    - repo: copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:custom-user:custom-repo
      packages:
        - package-1

Package Groups

• See list of all package groups by running dnf5 group list --hidden on a live system
• Set the option with-optional to true to enable installation of optional packages in package groups

type: dnf
group-install:
  with-optional: true
  packages:
    - de-package-1
    - wm-package-2

Replace Packages

• You can specify one or more packages that will be swapped from another repo
• This process uses distro-sync to perform this operation
• All packages not specifying old: and new: will be swapped in a single transaction

type: dnf
replace:
  - from-repo: copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:custom-user:custom-repo
    packages:
      - package-1

• If a package has a different name in another repo, you can use the old: and new: properties
• This process uses swap to perform this operation for each set
• This process is ran before distro-sync

type: dnf
replace:
  - from-repo: repo-1
    packages:
      - old: old-package-2
        new: new-package-2

Options

The following options can specified in the package installation, group installation, and package replacement sections.

• install-weak-deps enables installation of the weak dependencies of RPMs
  • Enabled by default
  • Corresponds to the --setopt=install_weak_deps=True / --setopt=install_weak_deps=False flag
• skip-unavailable enables skipping packages unavailable in repositories without erroring out
  • Disabled by default
  • Corresponds to the --skip-unavailable flag
• skip-broken enables skipping broken packages without erroring out
  • Disabled by default
  • Corresponds to the --skip-broken flag
• allow-erasing allows removing packages in case of dependency problems during package installation
  • Disabled by default
  • Corresponds to the --allowerasing flag
• exclude allows excluding packages from being installed during package installation
  • Empty by default
  • Corresponds to the --exclude flag

type: dnf
install:
  skip-unavailable: true
  exclude:
    ...
  packages:
    ...
group-install:
  skip-broken: true
  exclude:
    ...
  packages:
    ...
replace:
  - from-repo: repo-1
    allow-erasing: true
    exclude:
      ...
    packages:
      ...

Removing

Packages

• You can set the auto-remove option to false to only remove the specific package and leave unused dependencies

type: dnf
remove:
  auto-remove: false
  packages:
    - package-1
    - package-2

Package Groups

type: dnf
group-remove:
  packages:
    - de-package-2

Optfix

Optfix was an option that existed to allow installation of programs into /opt/ at build-time. With BlueBuild CLI version v0.9.23 and above, this fix happens automatically. The option is now deprecated and does nothing

Note

This documentation page uses the installation of the Brave Browser as an example of a package that required a custom repository and a custom key to install properly. This is not an official endorsement of the Brave Browser by the BlueBuild project.

Example configuration

type: dnf
repos:
  cleanup: true # clean up added repos after module is done
  files:
    - https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo
    - fury.repo
  copr:
    - atim/starship
    - trixieua/mutter-patched
  keys:
    - https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc
  nonfree: rpmfusion
install:
  skip-unavailable: true # skip unavailable packages
  packages:
    - repo: brave-browser
      packages:
        - brave-browser
    - starship
    - https://github.com/Eugeny/tabby/releases/download/v1.0.209/tabby-1.0.209-linux-x64.rpm
    - kubectl.rpm
  exclude:
    - alacritty
remove:
  packages:
    - firefox
    - firefox-langpacks
replace:
  - from-repo: copr:copr.fedorainfracloud.org:trixieua:mutter-patched
    skip-unavailable: true # skip unavailable packages
    packages:
      - mutter
      - mutter-common
      - gdm
group-install:
  with-optional: true # install optional packages from group
  packages:
    - cosmic-desktop
    - cosmic-desktop-apps
    - window-managers
group-remove:
  packages:
    - development-tools

Configuration options

repos: (optional object)

No description provided…

cleanup: (optional boolean)

Cleans up the repos added in the same step after packages are installed.

Default: false

files: (optional enum)

List of paths or URLs to .repo files to import

Possible values: undefined, Unknown type

copr: (optional enum)

List of COPR project repos to add. You can also specify 2 lists instead to ‘enable’ or ‘disable’ COPR repos.

Possible values: Unknown type, Unknown type

keys: (optional array)

List of links to key files to import for installing from custom repositories.

nonfree: (optional enum)

Enable one of the nonfree repos.

This allows you to enable one of the nonfree repos. However, only one can be enabled at a time so if one is enabled, the other will be disabled if it is already enabled.

Possible values: negativo17, rpmfusion

optfix: (optional array)

DEPRECATED: List of folder names under /opt/ to enable for installing into.

group-remove: (optional object)

No description provided…

packages: (optional array)

List of RPM groups to remove.

group-install: (optional object)

No description provided…

packages: (optional array)

List of RPM groups to install.

with-optional: (optional boolean)

Include optional packages from group.

Default: false

install-weak-deps: (optional boolean)

Whether to install weak dependencies.

Default: true

skip-unavailable: (optional boolean)

Whether to continue with the install if there are no packages available in the repository.

Default: false

skip-broken: (optional boolean)

Whether to continue with the install if there are broken packages.

Default: false

allow-erasing: (optional boolean)

Whether to allow erasing (removal) of packages in case of dependency problems.

Default: false

exclude: (optional array)

A list of packages to prevent from being installed

remove: (optional object)

No description provided…

packages: (optional array)

List of RPM packages to remove.

auto-remove: (optional boolean)

Whether to remove unused dependencies during removal operation.

Default: true

install: (optional object)

No description provided…

packages: (optional array)

List of RPM packages to install.

Possible values: Unknown type, Unknown type

install-weak-deps: (optional boolean)

Whether to install weak dependencies.

Default: true

skip-unavailable: (optional boolean)

Whether to continue with the install if there are no packages available in the repository.

Default: false

skip-broken: (optional boolean)

Whether to continue with the install if there are broken packages.

Default: false

allow-erasing: (optional boolean)

Whether to allow erasing (removal) of packages in case of dependency problems.

Default: false

exclude: (optional array)

A list of packages to prevent from being installed

replace: (optional array)

List of configurations for replacing packages from another repo.