urpmi¶

ID: urpmi
Links: Home page · Repository · Wikipedia
Platforms: 🐧 Linux (Mageia, Mandriva Linux only)
Operations: installed · outdated · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · sync · cleanup
purl types: pkg:rpm/ · pkg:urpmi/
CLI name: urpmi
Forced environment: LC_ALL=C
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: rpm-based
Source: urpmi.toml

urpmi is the RPM front-end of the Mandriva lineage (Mageia, OpenMandriva, ROSA), spanning several binaries: urpmi (install/upgrade/cache), urpme (remove), urpmq (queries) and urpmi.update (media refresh).

Parsing notes, verified against the urpmi Perl source (urpm/args.pm, urpmq, urpme, urpmi.update) and the urpmi/urpmq/urpme man pages:

urpmi has no native installed-package listing: enumeration goes through rpm itself, which urpmi fronts (librpm is always present), with a caller-controlled --queryformat.
urpmq’s package-data output is one bare package name per line; -r appends -version-release. The regexes split the fused NVR on its last two dash-fields.
Every human-facing string is gettext-localized: LC_ALL=C keeps the parsed output stable (package data itself is not translated, but errors and prompts are).
--auto suppresses all urpmi/urpme prompts. --version is undocumented in the man pages but implemented in the shared options table of every tool.
Mutations abort for non-root users (“Only superuser is allowed to install packages”), including urpmi.update and --clean.

What `mpm` adds to `urpmi`¶

Through mpm, urpmi 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Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover urpmi alongside dnf, dnf5, microdnf, yum, zypper and any other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom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 `urpmi` commands, in `mpm`¶

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

To…	With `urpmi`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`rpm --query --all --queryformat %<NAME> %<VERSION>-%<RELEASE>\n`	`mpm --urpmi installed`
List outdated packages	`urpmq --auto-select -r`	`mpm --urpmi outdated`
Search for a package	`urpmq --fuzzy <query> -r`	`mpm --urpmi search <query>`
Install a package	`urpmi --auto <package_id>`	`mpm install pkg:urpmi/<package_id>`
Upgrade one package	`urpmi --auto <package_id>`	`mpm --urpmi upgrade <package_id>`
Upgrade everything	`urpmi --auto-select --auto`	`mpm --urpmi upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`urpme --auto <package_id>`	`mpm remove pkg:urpmi/<package_id>`
Clear caches	`urpmi --clean`	`mpm --urpmi cleanup --cache`

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`	✅
`sync`	✅
`cleanup`	✅
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore urpmi on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-urpmi option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
urpmi = false
```
Raise the timeout of all urpmi calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.urpmi]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template urpmi to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.urpmi]
cli_names = [
    "urpmi",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "urpmi (?P<version>\\S+)",
]

[mpm.overrides.urpmi.extra_env]
LC_ALL = "C"

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

Recipes¶

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

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --urpmi dump urpmi.toml, then mpm restore urpmi.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --urpmi sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

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.

Its privileged operations are cleanup, install, remove, sync, upgrade, upgrade_all.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Concurrency¶

mpm never runs urpmi at the same time as dnf, dnf5, microdnf, yum or zypper: they all reach the RPM database, where a second writer either waits for the first one to finish or fails on its lock. 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 urpmi’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None (Mageia)

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.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the bundled definition. If you know urpmi well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ rpm --query --all --queryformat %{NAME} %{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\n
sgml-skel 0.7-24.mga9
desktop-file-utils 0.26-5.mga9

$ urpmq --auto-select -r
kernel-desktop-6.6.0-1.mga9
fvwm3-1.0.2-1.1.mga8

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ urpmi --version
urpmi 8.121.7

and extracted with:

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

Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Resolve pkg:alpm, pkg:conda, pkg:deb, pkg:melpa, pkg:pypi and pkg:rpm pURLs to these managers too, alongside the ones already handling each type.
- Stop running urpmi concurrently with the other RPM front-ends, which reach one database on the same host.
7.2.0 (2026-07-09)
- Add urpmi (Mageia and the Mandriva lineage) with installed, outdated, search, install, upgrade, remove, sync and cleanup support; a bundled configuration-defined manager.