Pulp Runbook - Deleting a Package

Overview

Deleting a package from Pulp is a multi-step process. Pulp tracks content by an internal pulp_href identifier, and package removal requires explicitly modifying repository content rather than deleting the package directly.

This runbook covers how to remove a package from a Pulp RPM or Debian/APT repository. The repository type is auto-detected; no separate script or flag is needed. The package content artifact is not deleted from Pulp storage - it is only removed from the target repository version going forward. Existing repository versions that included the package remain unchanged (Pulp repository versions are immutable).

Prerequisites

Pulp CLI configured and authenticated

Usage

Run scripts/pulp/delete-package.sh with exact package name and version, and a partial repository name. An optional --profile flag selects a Pulp CLI profile. Use --dry-run to verify the search resolves to the correct package and repository before making any changes:

scripts/pulp/delete-package.sh --name <name> --version <version> --repository <search> [--profile <profile>] [--dry-run]

Examples:

scripts/pulp/delete-package.sh --name gitlab-ee --version 18.9.1 --repository sles-12.5-x86_64
scripts/pulp/delete-package.sh --name gitlab-ee --version 18.9.1 --repository sles-12.5-x86_64 --profile ops
scripts/pulp/delete-package.sh --name gitlab-ee --version 18.9.1 --repository sles-12.5-x86_64 --dry-run

--name matches the package name field for both ecosystems. The underlying Pulp CLI filter differs (--name for RPM, --package for Debian/APT), but the script handles this automatically based on the auto-detected repository type.

For Debian/APT repositories, --version must include the release suffix, e.g. 18.0.5-ee.0 rather than 18.0.5. To find the exact version string:

pulp [--profile <profile>] deb content list \
  --repository-version $(pulp [--profile <profile>] deb repository show --name <repo> | jq -r '.latest_version_href') \
  --package <name> \
  --field version

The script will:

Look up the package href by filename
Remove the package from the repository
Verify the package is absent from the latest repository version
Clean up the orphaned content artifact from storage using orphan cleanup --content-hrefs

Warning: Avoid running pulp orphan cleanup without --content-hrefs as it will delete all unreferenced content across all repositories.

If you do not know the exact repository name, search by partial name first:

pulp repository list --name-contains '<partial-name>'

Notes

Repository version history is immutable: Previous repository versions that included the package are not affected. Only the new version onward will reflect the removal.
Auto-publish: Our repositories are configured to auto-publish on content change. A new publication pointing to the new repository version will be created automatically after the content modify operation completes.