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Linux Package Managers Compared: APT, DNF, Pacman and Zypper (linuxblog.io)

submitted 3 weeks ago by cm0002@lemmy.zip to c/linux@programming.dev

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If you’ve hopped between Linux distributions as much as I have, you know that each major family of distros introduces you to a different package manager. At first, it can feel a bit daunting (apt on Debian/Ubuntu, dnf on RHEL/Fedora, pacman on Arch, and zypper on openSUSE), but these tools all serve the same purpose of installing and updating software.

After using Linux for years (across everything from Debian to Arch-based systems), I’ve grown comfortable with all of them. Even niche distros like Slackware, Gentoo, and Void. In this post, I’ll break down the major package managers, how they differ, and what it’s like to use each one. We’ll also touch on the universal package formats (Snap and Flatpak) that aim to work across distributions, and lastly mention a few niche package management systems. Let’s dive in!

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[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

None that I know of. I'm pretty sure they are both installed. I think dnf has some sort of TUI. I was just never interested.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

No idea, if it has a TUI, but I feel like improved performance should be good enough of a reason to switch, if there are no downsides...

[–] endoftheocean@piefed.social 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I haven't noticed any issues. It actually cleans up some old yum syntax.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

I guess I should learn about that last bit. Someday ...

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That makes perfect sense until I contrast it with the fact that I've never had any sort of issue with yum's performance. I do this crap for a living. I might carry out the same install or patching on several servers. As long as it executes in a consistent and reliable way, performance is really a secondary consideration.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ah, so you've scripted a whole bunch of stuff with YUM. Then you automatically have the downside that switching over could incur hours of work.

As much as the software developer in me wants to encourage you to use DNF (or an abstraction like pkcon) for newer scripts, in case they want to remove YUM one day, I get not wanting to deal with two separate tools.

In my head, switching over was trivial, i.e. just typing D, N, F instead of Y, U, M, because that was my experience when I switched over way back when I was still a freshly hatched penguin.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, exactly. The company I work for has lots of yum scripting. I don't hate dnf, its just not the interface I've used at work.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Most distros don't really have yum anymore. DNF is actually running the command in a yum mode, so you're really using dnf.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well the distros in question are pretty standard. RHEL, CENT, Oracle, Rocky. Ok. At least they let me keep my interface.

[–] chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Sometimes you've got to adapt to change.

It took me a while, but I moved off apt-get to just apt.

Habits die hard.

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 1 points 3 weeks ago

Sometimes they come back. I've re-learned to use apt-get dist-upgrade for Proxmox patching.