DNF5 In-Depth Reference

DNF5 is the next-generation RPM package manager for Fedora/RHEL, rewritten in C++ (C++20) for better performance and fewer external dependencies. It consists of the dnf5 CLI, the libdnf5 core library, the libdnf5-cli CLI helper, a two-tier plugin system, and dnf5daemon (D-Bus daemon).

Data Flow

dnf5 <command> [options] [args]
  → logger setup, Base creation, command registration
    → plugin loading (dnf5 active + libdnf5 passive)
      → argument parsing, config loading
        → repo sack creation, repo loading, Vars substitution
          → goal resolution, transaction table
            → download, GPG check, RPM transaction
              → system state update

Sub-Resources

Load the reference that matches your task. When in doubt, load multiple references.

Keywords	Reference
CLI, commands, options, flags, synopsis, exit codes, environment variables, assumeyes, assumeno, quiet, exclude, repo, setopt, setvar, repofrompath, releasever, installroot, forcearch, refresh, cacheonly, color, version, comment, dump-main-config	references/cli.md
configuration, dnf.conf, config options, main section, repo options, color options, option types, boolean, integer, storage size, drop-in directories, repos.override.d, varsdir, reposdir, pluginconfpath, pluginpath, cachedir, system_cachedir, persistdir, protected_packages, installonlypkgs, tsflags, metadata_expire, zchunk, multilib_policy, obsoletes, best, skip_broken, skip_unavailable, allow_downgrade, allow_vendor_change, vendor change policy, group_package_types, optional_metadata_types	references/configuration.md
workflow, lifecycle, execution flow, hooks, pre_base_setup, post_base_setup, repos_configured, repos_loaded, pre_add_cmdline_packages, post_add_cmdline_packages, goal_resolved, pre_transaction, post_transaction, finish, init, create_commands, pre_configure, configure, load_additional_packages, run, goal_resolved step	references/workflow.md
plugins, dnf5 plugins, libdnf5 plugins, active plugins, passive plugins, IPlugin, IPlugin2_1, plugin API versioning, PluginAPIVersion, PluginVersion, LibraryVersion, DNF5_PLUGINS_DIR, LIBDNF_PLUGINS_CONFIG_DIR, actions plugin, appstream plugin, expired-pgp-keys, rhsm, local plugin, python_plugins_loader, CMakeLists.txt, dnf5_plugin_get_api_version, libdnf_plugin_get_api_version	references/plugins.md
daemon, dnf5daemon, D-Bus, dbus, SessionManager, open_session, close_session, polkit, PolicyKit, org.rpm.dnf.v0, Rpm interface, Repo interface, Goal interface, Base interface, Offline interface, Advisory interface, History interface, comps.Group interface, transaction signals, download signals, dnf5daemon-server, dnf5daemon-client	references/daemon.md
specs, NEVRA, NEVR, provides, file provides, binaries, globs, glob patterns, package-spec, group-spec, environment-spec, module-spec, NSVCA, transaction-spec, partial matching, epoch, version, release, arch, noarch, src, rich dependencies	references/specs.md
modularity, modulemd, module stream, active stream, inactive stream, default stream, enabled stream, module_hotfixes, modular filtering, demodularized, orphaned modular packages, fail-safe, modulefailsafe, module_platform_id, module_stream_switch	references/modularity.md
caching, cache, metadata, cacheonly, keepcache, build_cache, solv, repodata, temporary_files.toml, metadata_expire, optional metadata, filelists, comps, updateinfo, presto, other, metadata types, cache sharing, copy-on-write	references/caching.md
migration, dnf4, DNF4, changes from dnf, dropped options, renamed options, new options, command changes, API changes, configuration changes, strict deprecated, deltarpm deprecated, best default true, cacheonly enum, migrating to dnf5, Fedora migration	references/migration.md
libdnf5, library architecture, Base, Goal, Transaction, PackageQuery, PackageSet, Package, Repo, RepoSack, RepoQuery, ConfigMain, ConfigRepo, ConfigParser, Vars, advisory, comps, rpm, module, transaction history, system state, NEVRA, reldep, arch, changelog, checksum, rpm_signature, versionlock_config, solv, libsolv	references/libdnf5.md
build, CMake, CMakeLists.txt, build options, WITH_DNF5, WITH_DNF5DAEMON_SERVER, WITH_MODULEMD, WITH_TESTS, WITH_PYTHON3, WITH_PERL5, WITH_RUBY, WITH_GO, WITH_PLUGIN_ACTIONS, WITH_PLUGIN_RHSM, sanitizers, clang-format, clang-tidy, dependencies, libsolv, librepo, sdbus-cpp, fmt, librpm	references/build.md
aliases, TOML, command alias, cloned_named_arg, named_arg, group, aliases.d, value_help, attached_command, attached_named_args, required_values, complete, group_id, descr	references/aliases.md
comps, groups, environments, mandatory, default, optional, conditional, group_package_types, with-optional, no-packages, group install, group remove, environment install	references/comps.md
filtering, excludepkgs, includepkgs, disable_excludes, user excludes, versionlock filtering, modular filtering, module_hotfixes	references/filtering.md
system-state, system_state_dir, TOML, package reasons, install reason, user, dependency, weak dependency, group, external, corrupted state, regeneration	references/system-state.md
installroot, --installroot, use-host-config, path resolution, chroot, releasever detection, module_platform_id	references/installroot.md
forcearch, --forcearch, architecture override, arch, basearch, qemu-user-static	references/forcearch.md
repo variables, $arch, $basearch, $releasever, $releasever_major, $releasever_minor, DNF_VAR_, varsdir, variable files, DNF0-DNF9, vars substitution	references/repo-variables.md

Quick Guide

• What CLI commands and options does dnf5 have? → references/cli.md
• How do I configure dnf5? → references/configuration.md
• What is the execution lifecycle of a dnf5 command? → references/workflow.md
• How do I write a dnf5 or libdnf5 plugin? → references/plugins.md
• How does the dnf5daemon D-Bus API work? → references/daemon.md
• What package spec formats does dnf5 accept? → references/specs.md
• How does modularity work in dnf5? → references/modularity.md
• How does caching work? → references/caching.md
• What changed from DNF4 to DNF5? → references/migration.md
• What is the libdnf5 library architecture? → references/libdnf5.md
• How do I build dnf5 from source? → references/build.md
• How do command-line aliases work? → references/aliases.md
• How do comps groups and environments work? → references/comps.md
• How does package filtering work? → references/filtering.md
• What is the dnf5 system state? → references/system-state.md
• How does --installroot work? → references/installroot.md
• How does --forcearch work? → references/forcearch.md
• What repo variables are available? → references/repo-variables.md

Cross-Project References

• For RPM package format internals (spec files, macros, headers), see the RPM project documentation at https://rpm.org/.
• For libsolv (the dependency solver used by dnf5), see https://github.com/openSUSE/libsolver.
• For librepo (repository downloading library), see https://github.com/rpm-software-management/librepo.
• For modulemd specification, see https://github.com/fedora-modularity/libmodulemd.
• For the existing dnf completer in carapace-bin, see completers/linux/dnf_completer/.