How to install a rpm package and its dependencies offline

Question

I want to install a rpm package, (e.g. python 3), and all of its dependencies in a linux server that does not have internet connection.

How can I do that?

Answer 1

There is a way, but it is quite tricky and might mess up your servers, so be very careful.

Nomenclature:

• online : your system that is connected to the repositories
• offline: your system that is not connected

Steps:

Compress your rpm database from the offline system and transfer it to the online system:

cd /var/lib/rpm/
tar -cvzf /tmp/rpmdb.tgz *
scp /tmp/rpmdb.tgz root@online:/tmp

on your online system; replace your rpm db with the one from the offline system:

cp -r /var/lib/rpm{,.bak} # back up your rpmdb from your online system. Make sure not to lose this!!
rm -rf /var/lib/rpm/*
cd /var/lib/rpm
tar -xvf /tmp/rpmdb.tgz # now your online system pretends to have the rpm database from the offline system. Don't start really installing / uninstalling rpms or you'll break everything

now simulate your update with download-only (I didn't run this with yum but with zypper, but it should be similar):

zypper up --download-only

Now you can fetch all the downloaded packages and they should suffice for updating your offline system

And now restore your online machine:

rm -rf /var/lib/rpm
cp -r /var/lib/rpm{.bak,}