How To Manage Yum Cache

1. How To Manage Yum Cache
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Table of Contents
Overview.......................................................................................................................................................1
Applies To......................................................................................................................................................1
Yum Options..................................................................................................................................................1
Yum Cache Management..............................................................................................................................1
Cleaning Packages.....................................................................................................................................2
Cleaning Metadata....................................................................................................................................2
Cleaning dbcache......................................................................................................................................3
Cleaning All ...............................................................................................................................................3
Make Cache...............................................................................................................................................4

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Overview
The purpose of this guide is to know the usage of YUM (Yellowdog updater modified). It is an automatic
updater and package installer/remover for rpm system(s).
One of the main features, it automatically identifies dependencies and ensures as to what packages
needs to be installed to complete requested package installation.
You can also utilize yum to install a group of packages, one of such group is “Development Tools”.
Yum has a plugin interface for adding simple features. Yum can also be used python programs via its
module interface.
yum clean, is cache option will help in managing the disk space at regular intervals on the system.
Applies To
 Linux flavor where yum is installed
 Tested on CentOS 7, RHEL 7
Yum Options
Yum command has different options for performing different type of package administration, few of the
major commands are discussed here.
Yum Cache Management
During its normal use yum creates a cache of metadata and packages. This cache can take up a lot of
space. The yum clean command allows you to clean up these files. All the files yum clean will act on are
normally stored in “/var/cache/yum”

3. How To Manage Yum Cache
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Cleaning Packages
This cleans up any cached packages in any enabled repository cache directory.
yum clean packages
Cleaning Metadata
This cleans up any xml metadata that may have been cached from any enabled repository.
yum clean metadata

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Cleaning dbcache
Yum will create or download some sqlite database files as part of its normal operation. This command
clean up the cached copies of those from any enabled repository cache.
yum clean dbcache
Cleaning All
Clean all cached files from any enabled repository. Useful to run from time to time to make sure there is
nothing using unnecessary space.
yum clean all

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Make Cache
Is used to download and make usable all the metadata for the currently enabled yum repos. This is useful
if you want to make sure the cache is fully current with all metadata before continuing.
yum makecache