DNF (software)

Summary

DNF or Dandified YUM[4][5][6] is the next-generation version of the Yellowdog Updater, Modified (yum), a package manager for .rpm-based Linux distributions. DNF was introduced in Fedora 18 in 2013;[7] it has been the default package manager since Fedora 22 in 2015,[8] Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8,[9] and OpenMandriva,[10] and is also an alternative package manager for Mageia.

Dandified Yum
Developer(s)Red Hat
Initial release18 January 2012; 12 years ago (2012-01-18)[1]
Stable release
4.18.2[2] &
5.1.11[3] / 8 December 2023; 3 months ago (2023-12-08)[2] &
12 January 2024; 2 months ago (2024-01-12)[3]
Repository
  • github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf Edit this at Wikidata
Written inC, C++, Python
Operating systemLinux, IBM AIX
PlatformRPM
Available inEnglish
TypePackage management system
LicenseGPLv2+ & LGPLv2.1+ & New BSD License
Websiterpm-software-management.github.io

Perceived deficiencies of yum (which DNF is intended to address) include poor performance, high memory usage, and the slowness of its iterative dependency resolution.[11] DNF uses libsolv, an external dependency resolver.[11]

DNF performs package management tasks on top of RPM, and supporting libraries.

DNF was originally written in Python, but as of 2016 efforts were under way to port it to C and move most functionality from Python code into the new libdnf library.[12] In 2018, the DNF team announced the decision to move libdnf from C to C++.[13][14] libdnf is already used by PackageKit, a Linux distribution-agnostic package system abstraction library, even though the library does not have most of DNF's features.[15]

Meanwhile, DNF5 is gearing up for an official launch in Fedora Linux 41. This versatile C++ package manager for RPM packages, modules, and comps groups uses libdnf and libsolv, supports Python 3, and is accessible in Fedora 38+.[16]

Adoption edit

DNF has been the default command-line package manager for Fedora since version 22, which was released in May 2015.[8] The libdnf library is used as a package backend in PackageKit,[15] which offers a graphical user interface (GUI). Later dnfdragora was developed for Fedora 27 as another alternative graphical front-end of DNF.[17][18] DNF has also been available as an alternate package manager for Mageia Linux since version 6 and may become the default sometime in the future.[19]

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and by extension, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, yum is an alias for dnf.[9]

Dependencies edit

libdnf edit

libsolv edit

  • a free package dependency solver using a satisfiability algorithm for solving packages and reading repositories
  • C
  • New BSD License

librepo edit

  • a library providing C and Python (libcURL like) API for downloading Linux repository metadata and packages
  • C
  • LGPLv2.1+

libcomps edit

  • libcomps is an alternative for yum.comps library, written in pure C, and has bindings for Python
  • C
  • GPLv2+

References edit

  1. ^ 0.6.4-1 for rpm-software-management/dnf dnf on GitHub
  2. ^ a b Tags · rpm-software-management/dnf on GitHub
  3. ^ a b Tags · rpm-software-management/dnf5 on GitHub
  4. ^ "DNF". Fedora Project Wiki. Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  5. ^ "What does DNF stand for". DNF User's FAQ. Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  6. ^ README.rst · rpm-software-management/dnf on GitHub
  7. ^ Byfield, Bruce. "Will DNF Replace Yum?". Linux Magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  8. ^ a b "Fedora 22 Released, See What's New [Workstation]". WebUpd8. 2015-05-26. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  9. ^ a b Matteson, Scott (2019-03-30). "What's new with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat Virtualization". TechRepublic. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  10. ^ "Switching to RPMv4". OpenMandriva. 2018-03-07. Archived from the original on 2022-06-26. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  11. ^ a b Edge, Jake (2014-01-15). "DNF and Yum in Fedora". LWN.net. Archived from the original on 2015-09-30. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
  12. ^ Šilhan, Jan (2016-02-24). "DNF into C initiative started". DNF blog. Archived from the original on 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  13. ^ Mach, Daniel; Mracek, Jaroslav (22 March 2018). "Announcing DNF 3 development". DNF: A Blog of The DNF Team. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  14. ^ Edge, Jake (28 March 2018). "DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++". LWN.net. Archived from the original on October 14, 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  15. ^ a b Aleksandersen, Daniel (2017-07-05). "Use DNF rather than PackageKit on Fedora". Ctrl blog. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
  16. ^ "Changes/ReplaceDnfWithDnf5". Archived from the original on 2023-11-12. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  17. ^ "Changes/Replace yumex-dnf with dnfdragora - Fedora Project Wiki". fedoraproject.org. Archived from the original on 2021-09-27. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  18. ^ "F27 Self Contained Change: Replace Yumex-DNF with dnfdragora - devel - Fedora Mailing-Lists". lists.fedoraproject.org. Archived from the original on 2021-09-27. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
  19. ^ Larabel, Michael (2016-09-05). "Mageia To Offer DNF, But Will Keep Using URPMI By Default". Phoronix. Archived from the original on 2017-12-06. Retrieved 2017-12-04.

External links edit

  • Official website