rpm-ostree

The rpm-ostree module offers pseudo-declarative package and repository management using rpm-ostree.

The module first downloads the repository files from repositories declared under repos: into /etc/yum.repos.d/. The magic string %OS_VERSION% is substituted with the current VERSION_ID (major Fedora version), which can be used, for example, for pulling correct versions of repositories from Fedora’s Copr.

If you use a repo that requires adding custom keys (eg. Brave Browser), you can import the keys by declaring the key URLs under keys:. The magic string acts the same as it does in repos.

Then the module installs the packages declared under install: using rpm-ostree install, it removes the packages declared under remove: using rpm-ostree override remove. If there are packages declared under both install: and remove: a hybrid command rpm-ostree remove <packages> --install <packages> is used, which should allow you to switch required packages for other ones.

Installing RPM packages directly from a http(s) url that points to the RPM file is also supported, you can just put the URLs under install: and they’ll be installed along with the other packages. The magic string %OS_VERSION% is substituted with the current VERSION_ID (major Fedora version) like with the repos: property.

The module can also replace base RPM packages. Under replace:, the module finds every pair of keys - from-repo: and packages:. (Multiple pairs are supported.) The module downloads the repository file declared by - from-repo: into /etc/yum.repos.d/ and from that repository replaces packages declared under packages: using the command rpm-ostree override replace. The repository file is then deleted. The magic string %OS_VERSION% is substituted with the current VERSION_ID (major Fedora version) as already said above.

Note

Removed packages are still present in the underlying ostree repository, what remove does is kind of like hiding them from the system, it doesn’t free up storage space.

Additionally, the rpm-ostree module supports a temporary (waiting for rpm-ostree issue #233) fix for packages that install into /opt/. Installation for packages that install into folder names declared under optfix: are fixed using some symlinks.

Known issues

When removing certain packages, some problem probably in upstream rpm-ostree causes a depsolve issue similar to below.

Resolving dependencies...done
error: Could not depsolve transaction; 1 problem detected:
Problem: conflicting requests

Example configuration

type: rpm-ostree
repos:
  - https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/atim/starship/repo/fedora-%OS_VERSION%/atim-starship-fedora-%OS_VERSION%.repo # when including COPR repos, use the %OS_VERSION% magic string
  - https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/fedora/tailscale.repo
  - https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo
keys:
  - https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc
install:
  - python3-pip
  - libadwaita
remove:
  - firefox
  - firefox-langpacks
replace:
  - from-repo: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/trixieua/mutter-patched/repo/fedora-%OS_VERSION%/trixieua-mutter-patched-fedora-%OS_VERSION%.repo
    packages:
      - mutter
      - mutter-common
      - gdm
  - from-repo: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/owner/repository2/repo/fedora-%OS_VERSION%/owner-repository2-fedora-%OS_VERSION%.repo
    packages:
      - package4
      - package5

Configuration options

repos: (optional array)

List of links to .repo files to download into /etc/yum.repos.d/.

keys: (optional array)

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

install: (optional array)

List of RPM packages to install.

remove: (optional array)

List of RPM packages to remove.