Fedora DNF5¶

ID: dnf5
Home page: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf5
Upstream stars: ⭐ 469
Last commit: 2026-09-07
Version requirement: >= 5
Platforms: 🅱️ BSD · 🐧 Linux · ⨂ Unix
Operations: installed · outdated · orphans · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup · doctor
purl types: pkg:dnf5 · pkg:rpm
CLI name: dnf5
Every call: dnf5 --quiet <command>
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: rpm-based
Source: meta_package_manager/managers/dnf.py

The dnf5 rewrite of DNF, Fedora’s reference package manager since Fedora 41.

Inherits every operation and parser from DNF. Its forced arguments drop --color=never (dnf5 rejects that option), keeping only --quiet.

What `mpm` adds to `dnf5`¶

Through mpm, dnf5 gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover dnf5 alongside dnf, yum, zypper and any other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `dnf5` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know dnf5: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `dnf5`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`dnf --color=never repoquery --userinstalled --qf <format>`	`mpm --dnf5 installed`
List outdated packages	`dnf --color=never repoquery --installed --qf <format>`	`mpm --dnf5 outdated`
Search for a package	`dnf4 --color=never search usd`	`mpm --dnf5 search usd`
Install a package	`sudo dnf --color=never --assumeyes install pip`	`mpm install pkg:dnf5/pip`
Upgrade one package	`sudo dnf --color=never --assumeyes upgrade pip`	`mpm --dnf5 upgrade pip`
Upgrade everything	`sudo dnf --color=never --assumeyes upgrade`	`mpm --dnf5 upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`sudo dnf --color=never --assumeyes remove pip`	`mpm remove pkg:dnf5/pip`
List orphaned dependencies	`dnf --color=never repoquery --unneeded`	`mpm --dnf5 orphans`
Clear caches	`sudo dnf --color=never clean all`	`mpm --dnf5 cleanup --cache`
Run health checks	`dnf --color=never check`	`mpm --dnf5 doctor`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✓
`outdated`	✓
`orphans`	✓
`search`	✓	exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`
`install`	✓
`upgrade`	✓
`upgrade_all`	✓
`remove`	✓	`--orphans` also drops the package’s orphaned dependencies
`sync`	✓
`cleanup`	✓	`--orphans` runs the system-wide orphan sweep
`doctor`	✓

Selecting and configuring `dnf5`¶

Deselect dnf5 for a single run with --no-dnf5, or persist the choice in your configuration:

[mpm]
dnf5 = false

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every dnf5 call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Keep it enabled but tune how mpm drives it with a per-manager override:

[mpm.overrides.dnf5]
timeout = 900

mpm config-template dnf5 prints every overridable attribute as a ready-to-paste block.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around dnf5, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --dnf5 dump dnf5.toml, then mpm restore dnf5.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --dnf5 sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).
Gate CI on health: mpm --dnf5 doctor relays Fedora DNF5’s own diagnosis and exits non-zero on trouble.

Privilege escalation¶

System-wide manager: mpm wraps its privileged operations in sudo out of the box. Instead of letting the tool prompt mid-run, mpm primes the credential cache up-front, with a single branded password prompt at most. Turn escalation off for rootless setups with --no-sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Concurrency¶

mpm never runs dnf5 at the same time as dnf, urpmi, yum or zypper: they all reach the RPM database, and a second writer waits on its lock for as long as the first one holds it, rather than failing. Each mutating operation waits for the previous one, even with a higher --jobs, while managers outside this group keep running in parallel.

Only mutations are held back. The read-only queries (installed, outdated, search) take no backend lock and stay fully concurrent.

Cooldown¶

State of Fedora DNF5’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: 🚧 Proposed
Mechanism: minimum_package_age (open issue)
Reference: rpm-software-management/dnf5#2743

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: Distro binary archives (pkg:deb, pkg:rpm, pkg:alpm, pkg:apk)
Retraction: Index revert: removal is an archive operation and the mirror is rebuilt without the package. Debian, for one, requires filing an RM: bug against ftp.debian.org (developers-reference)
Publish date: ❌ the version string is the distro maintainer’s build, carrying no upstream publication date

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Version probe¶

The version is probed by running:

$ dnf5 --version
dnf5 version 5.4.3.0
dnf5 plugin API version 2.0
libdnf5 version 5.4.3.0
libdnf5 plugin API version 2.2

and extracted with:

r"dnf5\s+version\s+(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`rpm-software-management/dnf5`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

8.0.0.dev0 (unreleased)
- Fix version detection against dnf5, whose banner was read as the version dnf5, dropping every RPM front-end from the pool on Fedora 41 and later.
- Fix search on dnf5, which returned no results at all, and keep whole package descriptions instead of their first word.
- Fix outdated, which reported the upgrade candidate’s own version as the installed one, and now names the epoch and release both sides differ by.
7.4.0 (2026-07-25)
- Plain cleanup no longer removes orphaned packages: their native sweeps moved behind cleanup --orphans. This also stops emerge’s cleanup from triggering its pre-depclean world upgrade unless --orphans is given.
- remove no longer cascades to orphaned dependencies by default: a plain removal keeps them. Use the new remove --orphans to restore the previous behavior.
- cleanup --cache now escalates through sudo: dnf clean all clears the root-owned package cache.
6.2.0 (2026-03-25)
- Add --quiet option to all invocations to reduce log verbosity.
5.20.0 (2024-11-25)
- Add support for new dnf5 manager. Refs #1423.