How to list all available versions of a package in RPM repository

Written by Claudio Kuenzler - 0 comments

Published on March 4th 2024 - last updated on March 5th 2024 - Listed in Linux

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Sometimes you want to check if the configured RPM repositories already contain an updated version of a package - or you simply want to get a list of installable versions of a package. But how can you simply list the available versions of a package in a RPM repo?

dnf search shows no version

The "obvious" command to enter is most likely dnf search - since we're searching for a specific package and its versions. But the output does not show any version at all - it only shows the package name itself:

[root@rhel9 ~]# dnf search my-fancy-package
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:03:08 ago on Mon 04 Mar 2024 03:58:59 PM CET.
==================== Name Exactly Matched: my-fancy-package ====================
my-fancy-package.noarch : my super fancy package

dnf info shows version - but only one version

When using a DEB based Linux distribution (such as Debian or Ubuntu), the command apt-cache show <pkgname> would reveal the version(s) of the package. Maybe this also goes for RPM based Linux distributions? 

The equivalent command would be dnf info <pkgname>, so let's try this:

[root@rhel9 ~]# dnf info my-fancy-package
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 9  137 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Shared Packages for Enterprise Linux 9 139 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Installed Packages
Name         : my-fancy-package
Version      : 1.1.21
Release      : 1.el9
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 357 k
Source       : my-fancy-package-1.1.21-1.el9.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
Summary      : my super fancy package
License      : GPLv3
Description  : my super fancy package

Unfortunately only one version (1.1.21) is showing up in the output. The Repository entry mentions @System, which means this is the currently installed package. 

But what about the other available versions of this package, still sitting in the RPM repo? I want to list them!

dnf list - with additional parameter!

Similar is the output of dnf list <pkgname>; the output is - again - only showing the version of the installed package:

[root@rhel9 ~]# dnf info my-fancy-package
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 9  137 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Shared Packages for Enterprise Linux 9 139 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Installed Packages
my-fancy-package.noarch    1.1.21-1.el9      @System

However with an additional parameter --showduplicates, all the available package versions from the repository are finally showing up!

[root@rhel9 ~]# dnf list my-fancy-package --showduplicates
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 9          139 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Shared Packages for Enterprise Linux 9         145 kB/s | 2.6 kB     00:00
Installed Packages
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.21-1.el9  @System
Available Packages
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.15-1.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.16-1.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.17-1.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.18-1.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.20-1.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.20-2.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9
my-fancy-package.noarch          1.1.20-3.el9  Internal_Repo_shared-9

It's really not obvious, but the dnf list <pkgname> --showduplicates command lists all the available package versions from the repository.

Updated package command cheat sheet

With this dnf command just learned, the Linux package command cheat sheet, which shows a comparison of yum, dnf, apt, zypper and rpm vs. deb commands, was updated.

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