Where in OPensuse 10.3 are the downloaded rpms stored? If not stored locally by default, how to enable this?

In general they're in /var/lib/ and I think by default Suse's Yast uses libzypp so in some sub-directory of /var/lib/zypp

I think by default rpms are not kept and there doesn't seem to be a way to enable keeping them in Yast's repository manager but using the zypper command line there is a "-k" option when adding repositories (see the man page - "man zypper")

There were, expectedly, no rpms in the var/lib/zypp directory or any directory with the name sax, cache, zypp.

The man for zypper does not contain an entry for -k switch.

From "man zypper" see "-k, --keep-packages
Enable RPM files caching for the repository. "

Repository Management


zypper is able to work with YaST, YUM, and aptrpm repositories, ZENworks 7 Linux Management, ZENworks 6.6.x Linux Management servers, as well as local files.


addrepo (ar) [options] <URI> <alias>
addrepo (ar) [options] <FILE.repo>
Add a new repository specified by URI and assign specified alias to it or specify URI to repo file.
Newly added repositories have auto-refresh disabled by default (except for repositories imported from a .repo, having the auto-refresh enabled). To enable auto-refresh, use the --refresh option of the modifyrepo command.
Also, this command does not automatically refresh the newly added repositories. The repositories will get refreshed when used for the first time, or you can use the refresh command after finishing your modifications with *repo commands. See also METADATA REFRESH POLICY section for more details.
-r, --repo <FILE.repo>
Read URI and alias from specified .repo file
-t, --type <TYPE>
Type of repository (yast2, rpm-md, or plaindir). There are several aliases defined for these types: yast2 - susetags, yast, YaST, YaST2, YAST; rpm-md - repomd, rpmmd, yum, YUM; plaindir - Plaindir.
-d, --disable
Add the repository as disabled.
-c, --check
Probe given URI.
-C, --nocheck
Don't probe URI, probe later during refresh.
-n, --name
Specify descriptive name for the repository.
-k, --keep-packages
Enable RPM files caching for the repository.
-K, --no-keep-packages
Disable RPM files caching.

It's not there in the man on my PC running Opensuse 10.3. Is there some package that I should be installing additionally?

I run zypper -k and I get an "unknown option" error. I run zypper -h and the -k option is not mentioned.

"Strange are the ways of Linux".

could be a generic man page and Suse customized the actual executable?

If you use Smart as the package manager you should be able to save rpm's with the "remove-packages" option http://labix.org/smart/config-options.

It may possible to use other package managers depending on the repository formats such as yum and synaptic

Thank you. Got SMART working.

fyi - Smart will place rpms in /var/lib/smart/packages

For creating rpms on local directory /var/cache/zypp/packages of all updates:
1. give command, as root, zypper mr -ka ((m-modify r-repository k-keep packages a-all)) before updating any packages.

This will do the trick

Didn't need to install any app till today.
Tried the command "zypper mr -ka", and I get "unknown option mr"

Tried with "-mr" and get more errors.
Tried looking at the zyper --help results, and there is no mr option as well.

Any other ideas?

looked up zypper help mr command is in repository handling section and the above solution works for me