A repository is a database or simply put a storage area where packages of a particular kind can be found.
Now on your linux box, you can manage these repositories and keep your repository list updated
Depending on the particular package you want, you can add or remove repositories.You can decide to have a large list of repositories since not all packages can be found in one repository. for instance, if i want to install ffmpeg, and it can't be found in my repository list then i have to manual add Videolan to my repository list.
There are a lot of these package management tools, but for the purpose of this article i would only talk about zypper because it has been working for me for some time now.
Someone may ask, why would i want keep a list of repositories, if i can download these packages manually and install.
This makes it easier to find and install software packages since you dont have to go through the pain of going to find individual software or libraries.
I bet you this is real pain, especially when you try to install a software and along the way, you have this message telling you that a library was not found. You find this library, install and just before you realise you been asked to install something else before you can continue. I was once building vlc from source code, and before i complete i realised i had installed about seven dependencies. With zypper i just installed all these dependencies at ease.
This is a very handy tool in moments of discomfort
To add a repository to your repository list, just enter the following line
$ zypper ar url NAME
$ zypper refresh
NB: the NAME is any name of your choice
Now, to install a package with zypper, it is as easy as
$ zypper in package
In fact there is a lot that this tool can do for you
For more info on the full usage of zypper, visit this url: http://en.opensuse.org/Zypper/Usage
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