zypper vs. apt and rpm vs. dpkg command comparison and cheat sheet

Written by Claudio Kuenzler - 2 comments

Published on June 12th 2013 - last updated on April 20th 2021 - Listed in Linux Shell

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The following table shows a comparison of the most important and most used commands for package/software management in SuSE and Debian/Ubuntu systems.

zypper vs. apt command comparison

The zypper command is available on SuSE systems.

The apt and related commands are available on Debian and Debian-based systems including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Knoppix, and a lot more.

Function	zypper command	apt command
Search package	zypper se "pkgname"	apt-cache search "pkgname" apt search "pkgname" (newer)
Install package	zypper in "pkgname"	apt-get install "pkgname" apt install "pkgname" (newer)
Update package list from repository	zypper refresh	apt-get update apt update (newer)
Update all packages	zypper update	apt-get upgrade apt upgrade (newer)
Upgrade all packages to new major version*	zypper dist-upgrade	apt-get dist-upgrade apt dist-upgrade (newer)
Update a single package	zypper update "pkgname"	apt-get upgrade "pkgname" apt upgrade "pkgname" or "install" should also update the package
Uninstall/remove a package	zypper remove "pkgname"	apt-get remove "pkgname" apt remove "pkgname"
Remove unused packages	N/A	apt-get autoremove apt autoremove (newer)
Show all packages found in repo(s)	zypper packages	apt-cache pkgnames
Show updateable packages	zypper list-updates	apt-show-versions -u
Show dependencies of a package	N/A	apt-cache depends "pkgname"
Show description of a package	zypper info "pkgname"	apt-cache show "pkgname" apt show "pkgname" (newer)

rpm vs. dpkg command comparison

Function	rpm command	dpkg command
List installed packages	rpm -qa	dpkg -l
List content of installed package	rpm -ql "pkgname"	dpkg -L "pkgname"
List content of package file	rpm -qlp "pkgname".rpm	dpkg --contents "pkgname".deb
Install package	rpm -i "pkgname".rpm	dpkg -i "pkgname".deb
Show to which package a file belongs	rpm -qf /path/to/file	dpkg -S /path/to/file
Simulate installation of package	rpm -i --test "pkgname".rpm	dpkg -i --simulate "pkgname"
Update a package	rpm -U "pkgname".rpm	N/A (use dpkg -i)
Uninstall/remove a package	rpm -e "pkgname"	dpkg -r "pkgname"

If you know additional zypper/apt/rpm/dpkg commands which are worth to be compared and mentioned here, please drop a comment.

Update June 14th, 2013: Added apt-get dist-upgrade to the table. This command allows to upgrade to a newer major software version (e.g. MySQL 5.0 -> 5.1). However it should be mentioned, that although this command exists in Debian, it is unlikely that it's going be used (except for a distribution upgrade, e.g. lenny -> squeeze). The reason for this is the "stable software version" mind of Debian. Ubuntu handles this approach differently and frequently adds newer major versions to their repositories.

Update July 10th, 2015: Added "list content" rpm and dpkg commands.

Update September 16th, 2015: Added "Simulate installation of package" rpm and dpkg commands.

Update March 13th, 2019: Added "apt" short commands.

Update May 31st, 2019: Added "Show to which package a file belongs".

Update September 24th, 2020: Added "Remove unused packages"

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Comments (newest first)

anon from wrote on Jan 11th, 2014:

The zypper equivalent for a distribution upgrade (apt-get dist-upgrade) is "zypper dup". See https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade

The Arch wiki has a similar comparison of more tools:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_rosetta

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Alexander from Zürich wrote on Jun 12th, 2013:

Might be worth mentioning, that for Debian the "Update all packages" would rather be:

apt-get dist-upgrade

Because of the "all packages" there. Don't know how that compares to zypper.

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