DNF5-SYSTEM-UPGRADE(8)

📦
version 5.4.6.0 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 DNF5-SYSTEM-UPGRADE — the glow-up page 💖

okay so this is dnf5-system-upgrade, part of the dnf5 manual, and bestie… this is THE page for giving your whole system a major glow-up. new major release era. let's go ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

dnf5-system-upgrade — the System-Upgrade Command. it does what it says on the tin, no cap.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

dnf5 system-upgrade <subcommand> [options]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the system-upgrade command is literally how you upgrade your system to a new major release. it works in two acts, like a two-part season finale:

  1. first, the download subcommand pulls down all the packages while your system is running normally. business as usual, vibes intact.
  2. then, the reboot subcommand reboots the system into a minimal "offline" environment to actually apply the upgrades. that's the main character moment.

dnf5 system-upgrade is a recommended way to upgrade a system to a new major release. but before you proceed, pls pls pls make sure your system is fully upgraded first, using:

dnf5 --refresh upgrade

also fyi: system-upgrade shares many subcommands with the offline subcommand. see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label> for the tea on those. iykyk 🫶

🎀 SUBCOMMANDS 🎀

  • clean — see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. it's an offline-command situation, go read that page bestie.
  • download — downloads all packages needed to upgrade to a new major release, and also checks that they can be installed. the "are we actually gonna be able to do this" vibe check. 🔥
  • log — see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. again, offline page, go look.
  • reboot — see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. yes, also the offline page. they're sharing, it's cute.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --releasever=<version> — Required. this is the version you're upgrading TO. it sets $releasever in all enabled repos. usually it's a number, or rawhide. you literally cannot skip this one, it's giving mandatory.
  • --no-downgrade — behave like dnf5 update: do not install packages from the new release if they're older than what's currently installed. this is the opposite of the default behavior, which behaves like dnf5 distro-sync — always installing packages from the new release, even if they're older than the currently-installed version. so default = new release wins, always. this flag = nah, keep the newer thing.
  • --allowerasing — allow removing of installed packages so any potential dependency problems can be resolved. sometimes you gotta let things go for the plot to progress. 😭
  • --number=<boot number> — see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. offline page, babes.
  • --poweroff — see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. yep, also the offline page.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

see dnf5-offline(8), Offline command <#offline-command-ref-label>. that's it, that's the whole section, it's all living over there.

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

Typical upgrade usage

the classic three-step routine, iconic behavior:

dnf5 --refresh upgrade
dnf5 system-upgrade download --releasever 40
dnf5 system-upgrade reboot

Show logs from last upgrade attempt

when you need to know what happened last time, detective mode activated:

dnf5 system-upgrade log --number=-1

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

📝 Author

see AUTHORS.md in the dnf5 source distribution. the girlies who built this 💖

Contributors to the dnf5 project.

heads up bestie: <#offline-command-ref-label> and the other <#...-ref-label> bits are literally in the original text, so they're staying exactly as-is. no editing, no inventing, that's the rule. 🎀

okay that's the whole page, you're fully caught up. this one shipped in the dnf5 manual dated Sep 24, 2026, and it's giving extremely useful. go upgrade something. slay. 👑🌸

📦 where this page comes from