Software management

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Software management is an important part of system management, covering the lifecycle (install, patch, upgrade, remove) of software on the system.

To accomplish this, one needs

Repositories which provide software
Tools to manage the software

and some knowledge how the different parts interact.

For openSUSE systems, software management breaks down into four basic components packages, patches, patterns, and products.

See here for a content overview over software management.

From bytes to products

So many bytes make a file, many files a package, many packages a pattern, and many patterns a product. Under the assumption that patterns describe features (functionalities), products are a collection of features (graphical desktop, office application, internet browser, etc.) and are clearly defined by the patterns they depend upon.

(Patches are not covered by this view as they affect all of the mentioned layers and best fit as a vertical side bar.)

Management [Code10]

Only the directly managed components are drawn in green in the above graphic. Packages, patterns, and products share common attributes and semantics, they all have

A name
A version and a release (epoch is optional and unused in openSUSE)
An architecture
A summary (one line, translatable)
A description (multiple lines, translatable)
Dependencies

and can be

Management [Code11]

Beginning with openSUSE 11.0, not all software elements (packages, patterns, products) are first-class entities any more. See here for a complete documentation.

Changes across versions

Follow this link to get to an overview page with documentation and links showing changes in software management within openSUSE and SUSE Linux across versions.