A local or remote directory containing packages plus additional information about these packages (package meta-data).
A short name for a repository used by various zypper commands. The alias can be chosen by the user when adding a repository and has to be unique.
Represents a whole product, e.g. openSUSE.
A pattern is an installable list of packages needed for a special purpose. Examples are Base System, providing the openSUSE baisc system, or GNOME Base System, containing all packages needed to run the GNOME Desktop environment.
A package is a compressed file in rpm format that contains the files for a particular program.
A patch consists of one or more packages—either full packages or patchrpm or deltarpm packages— and may also introduce dependencies to packages that are not installed yet.
An generic term for product, pattern, package or patch. The most commonly used type of resolvable is a package or a patch.
A patchrpm consists only of files that have been updated since it was first released for openSUSE 11.0. Its download size is usually considerably smaller than the size of a package.
A deltarpm consists only of the binary diff between two defined versions of a package and therefore, has the smallest download size. Before being installed, the rpm package has to be rebuild on the local machine.