Yum package manager

YUM
PACKAGE
MANAGER
Yum is known as Red Hat
package manager
Prepared by: Satish Kumar
Founder, LinuxConcept
LINUXCONCEPT
LINUXCONCEPT
LINUXCONCEPT
https://linuxconcept.com/yum-package-manager-a-complete-guide/

LINUXCONCEPT
Yum is known as Red Hat package manager, use to get
information about available packages, fetch packages
from repositories.
It is also used to install and uninstall packages and
update single packages as well as an entire system with
the latest available version.
Yum package manager is top-rated in Red Hat-based
Linux distribution to install and update packages as it
automatically resolves the dependency while install,
remove or update packages and install them properly.
Yum having capabilities to be configured with new and
additional repositories, source of packages, and having
many plug-ins to enhance and extend capabilities of its
features.
Yum is competent to perform system administrator task
within the time frame, and you can perform your tasks
very fast, as it provides capabilities beyond of GUI
package management tools.

LINUXCONCEPT
CHECK FOR UPDATE
Using Yum package manager, you can check available update
for installed packages in your system, as shown below:
CHECK AND UPDATE PACKAGES
In this section of YUM tutorial, we will learn to check
available update and update packages, and also we will learn
to upgrade system in off-line mode using Operating system’s
ISO files.
# yum check-update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, presto
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.mirror.netelligent.ca
* extras: centos.mirror.netelligent.ca
* updates: centos.mirror.netelligent.ca
acl.x86_64 2.2.49-7.el6_9.1 base
attr.x86_64 2.4.44-7.el6 base
audit.x86_64 2.4.5-6.el6 base
audit-libs.x86_64 2.4.5-6.el6 base
authconfig.x86_64 6.1.12-23.el6 base
bash.x86_64 4.1.2-48.el6 base
bfa-firmware.noarch 3.2.23.0-2.el6 base
bind.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates

LINUXCONCEPT
UPDATE PACKAGES
Yum can update a single package, multiple packages or all
packages at once, and if there are any dependencies of the
package, Yum will update package, and update available
packages for dependencies too.
Update a Single Package
To update a single package run the Yum command with
package name as the root user, as shown below:
The above output will show you the package name with CPU
architecture, version of packages, and repository name where
package is available.
For example:
First package in above output is:
acl.x86_64 2.2.49-7.el6_9.1 base
acl – the name of the package
x86_64 – the CPU architecture, package built for
2.2.49-7.el6_9.1 – the version of the latest available package
for update
base – the repository where the package located
We can use Yum to update kernel, RPM, and YUM themselves
and their dependencies.

LINUXCONCEPT
The syntax for Updating Single package:
# yum update package_name
For example:
~]# yum update vim
Setting up Update Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package vim-enhanced.x86_64 2:7.4.629-5.el6_10.2 set to be
updated
--> Processing Dependency: vim-common = 2:7.4.629-5.el6_10.2 for
package: 2:vim-enhanced-7.4.629-5.
el6_10.2.x86_64
---> Package vim-common.x86_64 2:7.4.629-5.el6_10.2 set to be
updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
===============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
===============================================================================
Updating:
vim-enhanced x86_64 2:7.4.629-5.el6_10.2 updates 1.0
M
Updating for dependencies:
vim-common x86_64 2:7.4.629-5.el6_10.2 updates
6.7 M
Transaction Summary
===============================================================================
Install 0 Package(s)
Upgrade 2 Package(s)

LINUXCONCEPT
Yum will present the update information with package name
and version including dependencies and then prompts you to
ask whether you want to perform the update.
Yum runs in interactive mode by default, If you know the
process and transaction going to performed by Yum command
you can use -y option with the command to automatically
answer Yes to any question asked by Yum while updating
packages.
Update all packages and their dependencies
To update all packages and their dependencies in the single
command you can use yum update command, as shown below:
# yum update
Update package Automatically
Yum has the capabilities to schedule update process where all
packages will get updates automatically.
To schedule automatic update you can use yum-corn package.
By using Yum-corn service, you can schedule an automatic
update process for your system daily as a cron job.
To install yum-cron use following command:
~]# yum install yum-cron

LINUXCONCEPT
After installation of yum-cron needs to enable service, by
default yum-cron service is disabled. You can enable the
service, as shown below:
~]# chkconfig yum-cron on
To start yum-cron service use following command:
~]# service yum-cron start
You can also verify the service status by using the below
command:
~]# service yum-cron status
You can configure yum-cron, edit the file /etc/sysconfig/yum-
cron, there are options to configure frequency, and notification
alert.

LINUXCONCEPT
When your system not connected with internet, you can use
Linux installation ISO image file to update system easily and
quickly.
You can use the following steps to upgrading Linux System:
Step 1 – Create a directory
Create a directory to mount the ISO image.
# mkdir mount_dir
Generally, we are creating directory under the /media
directory.
Step 2 – Mount ISO image
To mount Red Hat ISO image to the previously created target
directory. Use below command as the root user:
# mount –o loop iso_name mount_dir
Replace iso_name with the path of ISO image and mount_dir
with a path of the target directory. The -o loop option is use
to mount the file as a block device.
Upgrade system with ISO file and Yum

LINUXCONCEPT
Step 3 – Create a repository file
You can copy media.repo into directory /etc/yum.repos.d/, you
can keep any name for your new repository file, follow below
command to create a new repository file.
# cp mount_dir/media.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/new.repo
Step 4 – Configure base URL
Now, you need to configure a new repository file to point Red
Hat installation ISO image. Edit baseurl into newly created
repository file as shown below:
baseurl=file:///mount_dir
Replace mount_dir with ISO image mounted directory’s path.
Step 5 – Update all repository
To update all repository source available at /etc/yum.repos.d/
use the following command:
yum update
The above command will upgrade your system to the version
provided by the mounted ISO image.

LINUXCONCEPT
Step 7 – Delete newly created repository
Now, if you don’t require previously created repository for
another installation or update, you can delete repository file by
using below command:
rm /etc/yum.repos.d/new.repo
For example:
Upgrading RHEl 7.2 to 7.3
~]# mkdir /media/rhel7
~]# mount -o loop RHEL7.3-Server-20160130.0-x86_64-
DVD1.iso /media/rhel7/
~]# cp /media/rhel7/media.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel7.repo
Configure baseurl in repository file:
baseurl=file:///media/rhel7/
~]# yum update
Now, use following command to unmount and remove the
newly created repository:
~]# umount /media/rhel7/
~]# rmdir /media/rhel7/
~]# rm /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel7.repo

LINUXCONCEPT
YUM – Packages and Package Groups
In this section of Yum package manager’s tutorial, we will
learn to search, list and display the package information using
Yum, and also we will learn to install and remove any packages
from the system using Yum.
Searching Packages
To search any RPM package on the repository, using the
following command:
yum search term…
It will display package name, descriptions, and summaries.
Example:
For example, here we searching package vim and emacs as
shown below:
~]# yum search vim emacs
The yum search command is very useful to search for
information about any packages.
yum search will return matches in package name and summary,
which is much faster search then yum search all command but
yum search all is more exhaustive search results.

LINUXCONCEPT
Listing Packages
The yum list command gives information about packages,
package group, and repositories. It allows as to filter results by
appending one or more glob expressions as arguments. The glob
expressions are any string contain one or more of the wildcard
characters * and ?.
“yum list glob_expression”
The above command will list all installed and available
packages matching the glob expression.
For example, here, we list all the ABRT add-ons and plug-ins
using glob expression, as shown below:
~]# yum list abrt-addon* abrt-plugin*
Available Packages
abrt-addon-ccpp.x86_64 2.0.8-44.el6.centos
base
abrt-addon-kerneloops.x86_64 2.0.8-44.el6.centos
base
abrt-addon-python.x86_64 2.0.8-44.el6.centos
base
abrt-addon-vmcore.x86_64 2.0.8-44.el6.centos
base

LINUXCONCEPT
“yum list all”
It will list all installed and available packages.
~]# yum list all
Installed Packages
apr.x86_64 1.3.9-5.el6_9.1 @base
apr-util.x86_64 1.3.9-3.el6_0.1 @base
apr-util-ldap.x86_64 1.3.9-3.el6_0.1 @base
attr.x86_64 2.4.44-4.el6 @anacond
ORBit2.i686 2.14.17-7.el6 base
ORBit2.x86_64 2.14.17-7.el6 base
ORBit2-devel.i686 2.14.17-7.el6 base
ORBit2-devel.x86_64 2.14.17-7.el6 base
OpenEXR.x86_64 1.6.1-8.1.el6 base
OpenEXR-devel.i686 1.6.1-8.1.el6 base
autofs.x86_64 1:5.0.5-140.el6_10.1 updates
bind.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates
bind-chroot.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates
bind-devel.i686 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates
bind-devel.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates
centos-release-xen.x86_64 10:8-5.el6 extras
centos-release-xen-410.x86_64 10:8-5.el6 extras
centos-release-xen-common.x86_64 10:8-5.el6 extras

LINUXCONCEPT
“yum list installed”
It will list all the installed packages on your system with
information of package name, version, CPU architecture, and
repository from where it was retrieved.
For example:
~]# yum list installed "krb?-*"
Installed Packages
krb5-libs.x86_64 1.8.2-3.el6 @anaconda-CentOS-
201106060106.x86_64/6.0

LINUXCONCEPT
“yum list available”
It provides output information similar to yum list installed but print
information of packages which are available in all enabled
repositories.
For example:
~]# yum list available gstreamer*plugin*
Available Packages
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free.i686 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free.x86_64 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-devel.i686 0.10.19-5.el6_8
base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-devel.x86_64 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-devel-docs.x86_64 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-extras.i686 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-bad-free-extras.x86_64 0.10.19-5.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-base.i686 0.10.29-2.el6 base
gstreamer-plugins-base.x86_64 0.10.29-2.el6 base
gstreamer-plugins-base-devel.i686 0.10.29-2.el6 base
gstreamer-plugins-base-devel.x86_64 0.10.29-2.el6 base
gstreamer-plugins-base-devel-docs.noarch 0.10.29-2.el6 base
gstreamer-plugins-good.i686 0.10.23-4.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-good.x86_64 0.10.23-4.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-good-devel.i686 0.10.23-4.el6_8 base
gstreamer-plugins-good-devel.x86_64 0.10.23-4.el6_8 base

LINUXCONCEPT
“yum grouplist”
It will list information about all package groups.
~]# yum grouplist
Setting up Group Process
base/group_gz | 242 kB 00:00
Installed Groups:
E-mail server
FCoE Storage Client
Legacy UNIX compatibility
Network Infrastructure Server
Network file system client
PHP Support
Perl Support
Storage Availability Tools
System administration tools
Web Server
iSCSI Storage Client
Available Groups:
Additional Development
Afrikaans Support
Albanian Support
Amazigh Support
Arabic Support
Armenian Support
Assamese Support
Azerbaijani Support
Backup Client
Backup Server

LINUXCONCEPT
“yum repolist”
The above command will help you to list repository information
along with ID and Name of the package for all enabled repositories.
~]# yum repolist
repo id repo name status
base CentOS-6 - Base 6,713
extras CentOS-6 - Extras 46
updates CentOS-6 - Updates 595
zabbix Zabbix Official Repository - x86_64 185
zabbix-non-supported Zabbix Official Repository non-supported -
x86_64 15
repolist: 7,554

LINUXCONCEPT
Display Package Information
You can use yum command to get the information about one or
more packages, as glob expressions are allowed with yum
information command.
To get the information about packages, use the following command:
yum info package_name…
For example, to get the information about the postfix package, type:
~]# yum info postfix
Installed Packages
Name : postfix
Arch : x86_64
Epoch : 2
Version : 2.6.6
Release : 8.el6
Size : 9.7 M
Repo : installed
From repo : base
Summary : Postfix Mail Transport Agent
URL : http://www.postfix.org
License : IBM
Description: Postfix is a Mail Transport Agent (MTA), supporting
LDAP, SMTP AUTH (SASL), TLS

LINUXCONCEPT
You can also pass the query to yum database to get information
about package by using following command:
yumdb info package_name
The above command use to get the additional information of
package, including the checksum of the package.
For example, you can use the below command to get additional
information of yum package:
~]# yumdb info yum
List out files contained in a Package
Similarly to rpm query, you can query from yum repository also, to
do this, you need a program called repoquery. By using repoquery,
you can query both individual packages and package group.
You can list all files contained by a package by using repoquery
command, as shown below:
repoquery --list package_name
you need to replace package_name with specific package’s name,
and list of containing files by that package will be on your screen.
For example, here we list all files contained by vim package:
repoquery --list vim

LINUXCONCEPT
Install Packages
Yum has capabilities to install a single package, multiple packages
or package group in one attempt, as per your choice.
Install Individual Packages
You can install a single package using the yum package manager by
using the following command:
yum install package_name
you have the choice to install multiple packages by adding their
name as argument in the above command, as shown below:
yum install package_name package_name…
Sometimes you need to install all similar packages into your system;
you can use glob expression to do this activity.
For example, here we can install all packages of MySQL by using the
following command:

LINUXCONCEPT
~]# yum install mysql-*
Setting up Install Process
Package mysql-libs-5.1.73-8.el6_8.x86_64 already installed and latest
version
---> Package mysql.x86_64 0:5.1.73-8.el6_8 set to be updated
---> Package mysql-bench.x86_64 0:5.1.73-8.el6_8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: perl(DBI) for package: mysql-bench-5.1.73-
8.el6_8.x86_64
---> Package mysql-connector-java.noarch 1:5.1.17-6.el6 set to be updated
.....
.....
=====================================================================================
=====================================================================================
Installing:
mysql x86_64 5.1.73-8.el6_8 base 895 k
mysql-bench x86_64 5.1.73-8.el6_8 base 429 k
mysql-connector-java noarch 1:5.1.17-6.el6 base 1.4 M
mysql-connector-odbc x86_64 5.1.5r1144-7.el6 base 114 k
mysql-devel x86_64 5.1.73-8.el6_8 base 130 k
mysql-embedded x86_64 5.1.73-8.el6_8 base 2.4 M
mysql-embedded-devel x86_64 5.1.73-8.el6_8 base 4.9 M
...
...
Transaction Summary
=====================================================================================
Total download size: 68 M
Is this ok [y/N]:

LINUXCONCEPT
Like package name and glob expression, you can also pass the file
name to yum install command. When you know the binary file name
to install, but you don’t know the package name then you can pass
the binary path to yum install command, as shown below:
~]# yum install /usr/sbin/named
Setting up Install Process
---> Package bind.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: bind-libs = 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 for package:
32:bind-9 .8.2-
0.68.rc1.el6_10.3.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: bind-libs = 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.1 for package:
32:bind-u tils-9.8.2-
0.68.rc1.el6_10.1.x86_64
---> Package bind-libs.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 set to be updated
---> Package bind-utils.x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
=====================================================================================
=====================================================================================
Updating:
bind x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates 4.0 M
Updating for dependencies:
bind-libs x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates 892 k
bind-utils x86_64 32:9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3 updates 189 k
Transaction Summary
=====================================================================================
Total download size: 5.1 M
Is this ok [y/N]:

LINUXCONCEPT
As you can see in the above command, we pass the binary path
/usr/sbin/named to yum install command. In this case yum will
search it through its package lists, and find the package which
provides /usr/sbin/named and then install it on the system.
Sometimes you know the binary name of the package but don’t
know in which bin or sbin directory is the file install; you can use
the yum provides command as shown below:
~]# yum provides "*bin/named"
32:bind-9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6.x86_64 : The Berkeley Internet Name Domain
(BIND) DNS (Domain Name System) server
Repo : base
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/sbin/named
32:bind-9.8.2-0.68.rc1.el6_10.3.x86_64 : The Berkeley Internet Name Domain
Repo : updates
Matched from:
Repo : updates
Matched from:
Repo : installed
Matched from:

LINUXCONCEPT
Installing a Package Group
A Package group is like a package only, but it is use to install all
packages that serve a common purpose. It has a name and a
groupid, you can use yum grouplist –v command to lists the names
of all package groups and the groupid will display in the last pair
of parentheses.
For example, here we check the group list for KDE desktop:
~]# yum -v grouplist kde*
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "presto" plugin
Config time: 0.026
Yum Version: 3.2.27
Setting up Group Process
rpmdb time: 0.001
group time: 0.160
Available Groups:
KDE Desktop (kde-desktop)
Done
To install a package group into the system, you can use
group_name or groupid with yum groupinstall command as shown
below:
yum groupinstall group_name
yum groupinstall groupid
you can also use the yum install command to install package group
by using @ symbol and groupid, as shown below:
yum install @group
The @ symbol tells yum that you need to perform groupinstall
operation.

LINUXCONCEPT
For example, we can use any one command from following to install KDE
desktop:
~]# yum groupinstall "KDE Desktop"
~]# yum groupinstall kde-desktop
~]# yum install @kde-desktop
Uninstall Packages
Similarly, to package installation, yum has capabilities to uninstall
package both individual packages or package group.
Uninstall Individual Packages
You can remove any package by using yum remove command with the
package name, as shown below:
yum remove package_name…
Like multiple package installation by yum, you can also remove multiple
packages by adding the package name in the above command, as shown
below:
~]# yum remove totem rhythmbox sound-juicer
Similarly, yum install you can use package name, glob expression, file
lists, and the package provides with yum remove command.
Uninstall a Package Group
You can remove the package group by using yum is similar like yum group
install syntax:
yum groupremove group
yum remove @group
So, for example, you can remove KDE desktop package group by using any
one command from following:
~]# yum groupremove "KDE Desktop"
~]# yum groupremove kde-desktop
~]# yum remove @kde-desktop

LINUXCONCEPT
Working with Transaction History
You can review the information about a timeline of yum transactions,
date and time they occurred, affected packages, and most important
transactions succeeded or not by using yum history command.
You can also undo or redo some of the transaction by using yum history
command.
Listing Transactions
To list out of twenty recent transactions, you can run the command yum
history without arguments or use below command:
~]# yum history list
To display all transaction, use the above command with all option, as
shown below:
~]# yum history list all
If you want to display transactions within the given range, you can use
the command, as shown below:
yum history list start_id..end_id
you have the choice to display transaction only related to a specific
package; you can use the following command:
yum history list package_name
yum history list glob_expression…

LINUXCONCEPT
For example, display the first five transactions, type:
~]# yum history list 1..5
ID | Login user | Date and time | Action(s) | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 | root <root> | 2019-03-28 19:55 | Install | 1 <
4 | root <root> | 2019-03-28 19:53 | I, U | 11 >
3 | root <root> | 2019-03-28 19:52 | Install | 2
2 | root <root> | 2019-03-28 18:58 | Install | 10
1 | System <unset> | 2019-03-28 14:56 | Install | 206
history list
You will always get the output of yum history list command in
tabular form, where each row consisting below mentioned
columns:
• ID – it is an integer value use to identify the transaction.
• Login user – the name of the user, who has initiated the
transaction. This information will display in Full Name <username>
form. Some of the transaction which has initiated by the system
itself, such as automatic system update will show System <unset>
value in this column.
• Date and time – it will show the date and time when the
transaction was issued.
• Action(s) – It will show a list of actions that were performed
during a transaction, described in below table.
• Altered – It will show numbers of packages that were affected by
a transaction with additional information.

Action Abbrviation Description
Downgrade D At least one package has been downgraded to an older version.
Erase E At least one package has been removed
Install I At least one new package has been installed.
Obsoleting O At least one new package has been marked as obsolete.
Reinstall R At least one package has been reinstalled.
Update U At least one package has been updated to a newer version
Symbol Description
< Before the transaction finished, the rpmdb database was changed outside Yum.
> After the transaction finished, the rpmdb database was changed outside Yum.
* The transaction failed to finish.
# The transaction finished successfully, but yum returned a non-zero exit code.
E The transaction finished successfully, but an error or a warning was displayed.
P
The transaction finished successfully, but problems already existed in the rpmdb
database.
S
The transaction finished successfully, but the –skip-broken command-line option
was used and certain packages were skipped.
Possible values of the Action:

LINUXCONCEPT
Possible value of the Altered field:

You can also display a summary of all transactions, by using the
following command:
yum history summary
you can display a summary of the transaction for given range by using
below command:
yum history summary start_id..end_id
You can also view the transaction summary for a specific package, as
shown below:
yum history summary glob_expression…
For example, here we printing transactions history summary for the
first 5 transactions:
~]# yum history summary 1..5
Login user | Time | Action(s) | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System <unset> | Last 6 months | Install | 206
root <root> | Last 6 months | I, U | 24
history summary
The command yum history list and yum history summary are used for
transactions, and it will display transactions related information of
packages, not giving the information about packages such as package
versions, etc.
To list the transactions information along with packages details, you
can use the following form of the command:
yum history package-list glob_expression…
For example, you can get the history and packages information of
subscription-manager by using the following command:
~]# yum history package-list subscription-manager*

LINUXCONCEPT

Examining Transactions
You can display a single transaction’s summary by using the
following form of the command:
yum history summary id
You can use yum history info command to get the detailed
information of a particular transaction, as shown below:
yum history info id…
The id option in the above command, when you missed it will
show you last transaction details.
If you want to specify more than one transaction, you can use
the range of transaction id.
yum history info start_id..end_id

LINUXCONCEPT

For example, here we check the information of transactions 4 and 5,
by using the following command:
~]# yum history info 4..5
Transaction ID : 5
Begin time : Thu Mar 28 19:55:44 2019
Begin rpmdb : 229:255176564858a97bd5ad23343ad9f1df106123f3 **
End time : 19:55:46 2019 (2 seconds)
End rpmdb : 230:0379d3eca4d368b699a7cafb05dac6c52770ac04
User : root <root>
Return-Code : Success
Transaction performed with:
Installed rpm-4.8.0-12.el6.x86_64
Installed yum-3.2.27-14.el6.centos.noarch
Installed yum-plugin-fastestmirror-1.1.26-11.el6.noarch
Installed yum-presto-0.6.2-1.el6.noarch
Packages Altered:
Install gdb-7.2-92.el6.x86_64
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transaction ID : 4
Begin time : Thu Mar 28 19:53:05 2019
Begin rpmdb : 218:d18972c90ac5531fa1179a980d833296b71d1c19
End time : 19:53:08 2019 (3 seconds)
End rpmdb : 228:8968163df21d2f720616f4e515c14f3c260839c4 **
User : root <root>
Return-Code : Success
Transaction performed with:
Installed rpm-4.8.0-12.el6.x86_64
Installed yum-3.2.27-14.el6.centos.noarch
Installed yum-plugin-fastestmirror-1.1.26-11.el6.noarch
Installed yum-presto-0.6.2-1.el6.noarch
Packages Altered:
Dep-Install apr-1.3.9-5.el6_9.1.x86_64
Dep-Install apr-util-1.3.9-3.el6_0.1.x86_64
Dep-Install apr-util-ldap-1.3.9-3.el6_0.1.x86_64
Dep-Install httpd-2.2.15-69.el6.centos.x86_64
Dep-Install httpd-tools-2.2.15-69.el6.centos.x86_64
Dep-Install mailcap-2.1.31-2.el6.noarch
Dep-Install make-1:3.81-23.el6.x86_64
Updated openssl-1.0.0-4.el6.x86_64
Update 1.0.1e-57.el6.x86_64
Install php-5.3.3-49.el6.x86_64
Dep-Install php-cli-5.3.3-49.el6.x86_64
Dep-Install php-common-5.3.3-49.el6.x86_64
history info

LINUXCONCEPT

You can also check the additional information of transaction like
configuration options used at time of the transaction, from
which repository and why were packages installed, etc.
To get this additional information you can use “yum history”
command in the following form:
yum history addon-info id
In the above command also if you missed id, it will display
information of the latest transaction, and another way to check
the latest transaction is to use last option with the command, as
shown below:
yum history addon-info last
For example, here we check transaction information with
additional details for numbered 4 transactions.
~]# yum history addon-info 4
There is three additional information in this type of transaction:
• Config-main – it represents tum’s global options used during
the transaction.
• Config-repos – it shows used options for the individual yum
repository.
• Saved_tx – it is the data that can be used by the yum load-
transaction command to repeat the transaction on another
machine.
You can use the following command to display the selected type
of additional information:
yum history addon-info id information

LINUXCONCEPT

Reverting and Repeating Transactions
Apart from reviewing the transaction history, yum has
capabilities to revert or repeat the selected transaction.
You can revert transaction by using the following form of yum
history command:
yum history undo id
And, you can use below form of the command to repeat
transaction:
yum history redo id
you can use last option with both commands to apply the
operation with the latest transaction.
These yum command can only repeat or revert the steps which
followed during the transaction. If the transaction installed a
new package, the yum history undo will uninstall it and if the
transaction were uninstalled a package, it would again install it.
We are also using these command to update and downgrade
packages to their previous version of these older packages are
still available.
If you are managing several identical systems, you can use yum
to perform a transaction on one system and store the transaction
details in a file and after testing repeat the same transaction on
other remaining systems to perform same tasks.

LINUXCONCEPT

You can store the transaction details into a file by using the
following command:
yum -q history addon-info id saved_tx > file_name
after copy this file into another system, you can repeat
the transaction by using the following command:
yum load-transaction file_name
Note: the rpmdb version stored in the file must be identical to
the version of the target system. You can verify the rpmdb
version by using yum version nogroups command.
Completing Transactions
Sometimes due to power failure or system crash and other
problems transaction not get completed. When such an event
happened with you, you can resume the transactions by using the
following command:
yum-complete-transaction
The yum-complete-transaction will search incomplete and aborted
transactions on the system and try to complete them.
The transactions information saved into the
/var/lib/yum/transaction-all and /var/lib/yum/transaction-done
file. If there is an incomplete transaction, Yum-complete-
transaction will attempt to complete from the most recent one.
You can clean transaction journal files without attempting to
resume the incomplete transactions, use the –clean-only option,
as shown below:
yum-complete-transaction --cleanup-only

LINUXCONCEPT

Starting New Transaction History
Yum package manager stores all transaction history in single
SQLite database file. If you want to start new transaction history,
you can do it by run below command:
yum history new
The above command will create a new empty database file at
/var/lib/yum/history/ directory. The old database file will be kept,
but not be accessible until the newer database file is present in
the directory.

LINUXCONCEPT

You should set global yum option by editing [main] section
of the /etc/yum.conf configuration file.
Configure individual repository option by editing [repository]
sections in /etc/yum.conf and .repo files in the
/etc/yum.repos.d/ directory;
Configure global yum variables in /etc/yum.conf file and
repository files in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ Directory, it will
help you to handle dynamic version and architecture values.
Always use the command line to add, enable, and disable
Yum repositories.
Setup your own custom Yum repository.
Configuring Yum Package Manager and Yum
Repository
You can find the Yum configuration file at /etc/yum.conf.
This configuration file has two important sections, one is
mandatory [main] section and can also one more [repository]
section configured.
The [main] section contains yum option which applied with
global effect and the [repository] section allow to configure
repository-specific options.
We always recommended configuring the individual repository in
a new file with extension .repo at /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory.
The value you configure in individual [repository] section of the
file /etc/yum.conf overrides values set in the [main] section.
Here some tips for configuring yum:

LINUXCONCEPT

Setting [main] Options
The Yum configuration file /etc/yum.conf contains [main] section
and key-value of this section affect how yum operates and how
it treats repositories.
The /etc/yum.conf configuration file’s contents look like this:
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=3
[comments abridged]
# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d
Here you can find the most used options in [main] section:
assumeyes=value
Value Description
0
yum should prompt for confirmation of critical actions it performs. This is the
default.
1
Do not prompt for confirmation of critical yum actions. If assumeyes=1 is set,
yum behaves in the same way that the command-line option -y does.

LINUXCONCEPT

cachedir=directory
The directory is an absolute path of the directory where yum
should store its cache and database files.
By default, yum’s cache directory is
/var/cahe/yum/$basearch/$releaserver.
debuglevel=value
The value is an integer between 0 and 10. Where debuglevel=0
will disable the debugging output, and higher value will cause
yum to display more detailed debugging output. The default
value is 2.
exactarch=value
Value Description
0 Do not take into account the exact architecture when updating packages.
1
Consider the exact architecture when updating package. With this setting, yum
will not install an i686 package to update an i386 package already installed on
the system. This is the default.

LINUXCONCEPT
exclude=package_name [more_package_names]
This option is use to exclude packages by keyword while
installation or update. You can list multiple packages here by
using a space-delimited list, and also can use wildcard
characters, for example, * and ? are allowed.

gpgcheck=value
Value Description
0
Disable GPG signature-checking on packages in all repositories, including local
package installation.
1
Enable GPG signature-checking on all packages in all repositories, including
local package installation. gpgcheck=1 is the default, and thus all packages
signatures are checked.

LINUXCONCEPT
The GPG-checking rule can configure into individual repository
section also.
groupremove_leaf_only=value
Value Description
0
yum should not check the dependencies of each package when removing a
package group. Using this setting, yum will remove all packages from package
group whether those packages are required by other packages or groups. This
is the default value.
1
By using this value, yum will check the dependencies of each package when
removing package group, and remove only those packages which are not
required by any other package or group.
installonlypkgs=space separated list of packages
Here you can mention the package name with space separated
which yum can install but will never update.
In this list we are including the package we don’t want to update
automatically, like kernel.
installonly_limit=value
Here the value is an integer represent the maximum number of
versions that can installed simultaneously for any single
package listed in the installonlypkgs directive.

keepcache=value
Value Description
0
Do not retain the cache of headers and packages after a successful installation.
This is the default.
1 Retain the cache after a successful installation.

LINUXCONCEPT
best – it will install the best choice architecture for the
system. For example, setting multilib_policy=best on an
AMD64 system, yum will install 64-bit versions of all
packages.
all – it will install possible architecture for packages. For
example, setting multilib_policy=all on AMD64 system, yum
would install both the i686 and AMD64 version of a package,
if both are available.
logfile=file_name
It is the absolute path of the log file for yum, where it is logging
the output. The default location of the log file of yum is
/var/log/yum.log.
multilib_policy=value
There are two values for this option:
obsoletes=value
Value Description
0 Disable yum’s obsoletes processing logic when performing updates.
1
Enable yum’s obsoletes processing logic when performing updates. When one
package declares in its spec file that it obsoletes another package, the latter
package will be replaced by the former package when the former package is
installed. Obsoletes are declared, for example, when a package is renamed.
obsoletes=1 is the default.

plugins=value
Value Description
0 Use to disable all yum plug-ins globally.
1 Use to enable all yum plug-ins globally.

LINUXCONCEPT
reposdir=firectory
It is the absolute path of the directory where . repo files located.
These . repo files are containing the information of repository,
similar to [repository] section of /etc/yum.conf file.
retries=value
The value is integer 0 or greater. It is use to set the number of
times yum should try to retrieve a file before prompting error.
You can set the value 0 to make yum retry forever; the default
value is 10.

When repository is available over HTTP protocol, use:
http://path/to/repository
When repository is available over FTP protocol, use:
ftp://path/to/repository
When the repository is on the local machine, use:
file://path/to/local/repository
Setting [repository] Options
The [repository] section has unique repository ID such as
my_personal_repo, where space is not allowed. It allows as to
define individual Yum repositories, but to avoid conflicts don’t
use the same name for repository used by Red Hat repositories.
Below is the example of [repository] section with minimum keys:
[repository]
name=repository_name
baseurl=repository_url
These are the basic directive need to configure with every
[repository]
name=repository_name
It is a human-readable string to describe the repository name.
baseurl=repository_url
The baseurl use to set repository_url, which is the path of the
directory where repodata directory located. You can use various
internet protocol to define the repodata:
The general format of http link for base URL is like:
baseurl=http://path/to/repo/releases/$releasever/server/$base
arch/os/

LINUXCONCEPT

Useful [repository] directive is following:
enabled=value
Value Description
0
Do not include this repository as a package source when performing updates and
installs. This is the easiest way to on and off repositories, which is useful when you
desire a single package from a repository that you do not want to enable for
updates or installs.
1 Include this repository as a package source.

LINUXCONCEPT
You can see the sample example of repository file is like below:
Sample of /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file
#
# Red Hat Repositories
# Managed by (rhsm) subscription-manager
#
[red-hat-enterprise-linux-scalable-file-system-for-rhel-6-entitlement-
rpms]
name = Red Hat Enterprise Linux Scalable File System (for RHEL 6
Entitlement) (RPMs)
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/entitlement-
6/releases/$releasever/$basearch/scalablefilesystem/os
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
sslverify = 1
sslcacert = /etc/rhsm/ca/redhat-uep.pem
sslclientkey = /etc/pki/entitlement/key.pem
sslclientcert = /etc/pki/entitlement/11300387955690106.pem
source-rpms]

LINUXCONCEPT
Entitlement) (Source RPMs)
6/releases/$releasever/$basearch/scalablefilesystem/source/SRPMS
enabled = 0
gpgcheck = 1
sslverify = 1
debug-rpms]
Entitlement) (Debug RPMs)
6/releases/$releasever/$basearch/scalablefilesystem/debug
enabled = 0
gpgcheck = 1
sslverify = 1

LINUXCONCEPT
Using Yum Variable
There are some variables known as Yum variable use in the yum
command line and yum configuration files.
Some of the variables explained below:
$releasever
This variable is use to reference the release version of Red Hat
Linux. Yum gets the value of $rleasever from the
distroverpkg=value line in the /etc/yum.conf configuration file.
The value of $releasever typically consists of the major release
number and the variant of Red Hat Linux, for example, Client
and Server.
$arch
This variable use to represent the CPU architecture as returned
when calling Python function os.uname(). The valid values of
$arch include i686 and x86_64.
$basearch
The $basearch variable represents the base architecture of the
system. For example, i686 machine has a base architecture of
i386, and AMD64 and Intel 64 machines have a base architecture
of x86_64.

LINUXCONCEPT
$YUM0-9
These 10 variables replaced with the value of any shell
environment variables with the same name. If one of these
variables referenced and a shell environment variable with the
same name does not exist, then the configuration file variable is
not replaced.
You can also define the custom variable and override the value
of the existing variables. To create a variable, first, create a file
with the same name without $ sign in the /etc/yum/vars/
directory, and add the desired value on the first line of the file.
For example, to define a new variable called $osname, create a
new file with the name of osname and add Red Hat Enterprise
Linux on the first line of the file and save the file as
/etc/yum/vars/osname:
~]# echo "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" > /etc/yum/vars/osname
Now instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can use the
following in the .repo files:
name=$osname $releasever

LINUXCONCEPT
Viewing Current Configuration
To display the current configuration of global yum option
configured in [main] section of file /etc/yum.conf, use the
following command:
yum-config-manager
You can also view the configuration of the specific section, by
using below command form:
yum-config-manager section…
You can also use glob expression to view configuration from all
matching sections:
yum-config-manager glob_expression…
For example, here we display all configuration options with their
corresponding values, by using the following command:
~]# yum-config-manager main *

LINUXCONCEPT
Adding, Enabling and Disabling Yum Repository
In this section, we will learn to add, enable, and disable a
repository by using the yum-config-manager command.
Adding a Yum Repository
You can define a new repository by adding a [repository] section
into /etc/yum.conf file or by creating a .repo file in the
/etc/yum.repos.d/ directory.
Yum repository generally provides their own .repo file to add
that repository on your system and enable it, by running the
following command:
yum-config-manager --add-repo repository_url
here repository_url is the link of .repo file.
For example, to add a repository located at
https://linuxconcept.com/linux.repo, type the following at a
shell prompt:
~]# yum-config-manager --add-repo
https://linuxconcept.com/linux.repo

LINUXCONCEPT
Enabling a Yum Repository
You can enable repository or repositories by using the following
command:
yum-config-manager --enable repository…
You can also use the glob expression to enable all matching
repositories:
yum-config-manager --enable glob_expression…
For example, to enable repositories defined in the
[linuxconcept], [linuxconcept-source] and [linuxconcept-
example] section, use below command:
~]# yum-config-manager --enable linuxconcept*
When the repository get enabled successfully, the above
command will display the current repository configuration.
Disabling a Yum Repository
You can disable yum repository by using the following command:
yum-config-manager --disable repository…
You can also use glob expression to disable all matching
repositories:
yum-config-manager --disable glob_expression…
when the above command runs successful, it displays the current
configuration.

LINUXCONCEPT
Creating a Yum Repository
In this section, we will learn to create a yum repository.
You can set up a Yum repository by the following steps:
Step 1 – Install the createrepo package
You can install “createrepo” package by using the following
command:
yum install createrepo
Step 2 – Create a repo directory
Create one directory for the new repository. Generally, we are
creating a custom repository directory in /mnt or /media
directory and copy all files into that directory or mount the ISO
file in the directory.
mkdir /media/local_repo/
Step 3 – Create repository
We can create a repository by using new repo directory, as
shown below:
createrepo --database /media/local_repo
The above command will create necessary metadata for your
yum repository.

LINUXCONCEPT
Working with Yum Cache
By default, yum deletes all downloaded files which are not needed
after a successful operation. It helps to manage minimum storage
space for yum uses.
You can enable cache, which can enable the functionalities to
store the data files in the cache directory which will help you to
do an operation in offline mode also.
Yum, store all temporary file in the
/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever/ directory, where $basearch
is represent the base architecture of CPU, and $releasever
represent the release version.
You can change the cache directory location by editing yum
configuration file /etc/yum.conf.
Enabling the cache
To enable cache of packages after successful installation, need to
configure by adding below the line in [main] section of
/etc/yum.conf file.
keepcache = 1
After enabling the cache, the yum operation may download
package data from the configured repositories.
You can use below command to download and make usable all the
metadata for currently enabled yum repositories:
yum makecache
This command is useful to make sure cache data is fully up to date
with all metadata. You can configure metadata expire time by
configuring metadata-expire parameter in /etc/yum.conf file
settings. https://linuxconcept.com/yum-package-manager-a-complete-guide/

LINUXCONCEPT
Using yum in Cache-only Mode
To use yum utility in cache only mode use the -c option with
yum command. It will work without a network connection and
getting data from the cache. You can also use the option –
cacheonly as an alternative.
By using cache only option the yum will install only packages
which are already downloaded and available in cache data.
You can list the packages that are currently using cached data
with name, by using the following command:
yum -C list gstreamer*
Clear yum Caches
Clear yum cache processes to clean the directory
/var/cache/yum, but it will not affect on installed packages.
You can remove currently enabled repositories from the cache,
by using the following command:
yum clean all

Option Description
expire-cache
Use to revalidate cache for all repositories the next time it is
used.
packages Eleminates any cached packages from the system.
headers
It use to eliminates all header file that previous versions of
yum used for dependency resolution
metadata
It eliminates the metadata of yum cached. These metadata
will download again at the next yum run.
dbcache
It is use to eliminates the sqlite cache used for faster access
to metadata.
rpmdb It is for eliminates all cached data from the local rpmdb.
plugins
Use to enable plugins are forced to eliminate their cached
data.
all Remove all types of cached data.

LINUXCONCEPT
There are multiple option you can use with yum clean command:

LINUXCONCEPT
Yum Plug-ins
Yum has multiple plug-ins capabilities that extend and enhance
yum operations. Some of the plug-ins installed by default.
You can get the information about installing yum plug-ins by
using the following command:
~]# yum info yum
Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Yum Plug-ins
To enable plug-ins to need to configure plugins=1 into [main]
section of /etc/yum.conf file.
plugins=1
To disable all plug-ins, you can change the value of plugins=1 to
plugins=0.
The plug-ins are also having its own configuration file in the
/etc/yum/pluginconf.d/ directory. These files are used to
configure options for specific plug-ins.
These plug-ins configuration files always contain [main] section.
[main]
enabled=1
One you disabled all plugins by setting option plugins=0 at
/etc/yum.conf, all plugins will get disabled which are not
configured for enable in the individual configuration file, it
means individual files configuration will always override to
yum.conf settings.
You can also disable one or multiple plugins by using the single
yum command, use the following command:
~]# yum update --disableplugin=presto
~]# yum update --disableplugin=presto,refresh-pack*

LINUXCONCEPT
Install Additional Yum Plug-ins
To install new yum plug-ins into the system, you can use below
command:
~]# yum install yum-plugin-security
Here you can replace yum-plugin-security with your plugin
name.
Plug-ins Descriptions
In this section, we will learn about the essential and useful yum
plug-ins.
search-disabled-repos(subscription-manager)
The plug-in search-disabled-repos help to temporarily and
permanently enable and disable to resolve dependencies.
This plug-in helps to work with repositories that are managed by
subscription-manager not with custom repositories.
To configure “search-disabled-repos” plug-in need to configure
file located in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/search-disabled-repos.conf.

Directive Description
enabled=value
It is use to enable or disable the plug-in. the value either 1
(enable) or 0 (disable). The plug-in is enabled by default.
notify_only=value
It is use to configure behaviour of the plug-in to notification.
The value of this directive must be either 1 (notify only
without modifying the behaviour of yum), or 0 (modify the
behaviour of yum). By default the plug-in only notifies the
user.
ignored_repos=repositories
It specify the repositories that will not be enabled by the
plug-in.
Directive Description
enabled=value
It is use to enable and disable plug-in just like another plug-
in.
whitelists=directory
It is use to configure directory path which has files with
supported kernel symbols. By defult, the kabi plug-in uses
files provided by the kernel-abi-whitelists package (that is,
the /lib/modules/kabi/ directory).
enforce=value
It is use to enable and disable it in enforcing mode. It
support value 1 for enable and 0 for disable.

LINUXCONCEPT
The “[main]” section of this plug-in supports these directives:
kabi (kabi-yum-plugins)
The kabi plug-in is use to checks driver update package
conforms with Red Hat kernel application Binary Interface (kabi).
When this plugin is enabled, and you try to install any package
that uses kernel symbols which are not whitelisted, a warning
message written to the system log.
You can configure kabi plug-in by an editing configuration file
located in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/kabi.conf.

LINUXCONCEPT
presto (yum-presto)
The presto plug-in support to yum to download delta RPM
packages while updating, from repositories which have presto
metadata enabled. Delta RPMs contain the information about
package differences between the version of the package
installed on a client machine and the updated version in the
repository.
product-id (subscription-manager)
This plug-in use to manage product identity certificates for
products installed from the Content Delivery Network. This is by
default, installed in the system.
refresh-packagekit (PackageKit-yum-plugin)
The refresh-packagekit plug-in use to update metadata for
PackageKit whenever yum command running. It is by default
installed on the system.
rhnplugin (yum-rhn-plugin)
The rhnplugin is use for connecting RHN Classic, it allows to
update and install packages for the system that registered with
RHN Classic.
security (yum-plugin-security)
Yum has a security plug-in to extend yum with a set of useful
security-related commands, subcommands, and options.
You can check the security-related update on the terminal, as
shown below:
~]# yum check-update --security
To update security affected packages by using either yum update
–security or yum update-minimal –security options.

LINUXCONCEPT
subscription-manager (subscription-manager)
The subscription-manager plug-in use to connect the system
with Red Hat Network, it is for connecting the Red Hat Network
to update and install packages from the certificate-based
Content Delivery network. It is installed in the system by
default.
yum-downloadonly (yum-plugin-downloadonly)
This plug-in (yum-downloadonly) provides an option –
downloadonly in yum command-line option which is use to
download packages from Red Hat Network and configure yum
repository without installing the packages.
The configuration file of this plug-in is located in
/etc/yum/pluginconf.d/downloadonly.conf.
~]# cat /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/downloadonly.conf
For example, here we use –downloadonly option to download
the latest version of the httpd package, without installing it:
~]# yum install httpd --downloadonly
By default, packages are download using –downloadonly option
are stored in one of the subdirectories of the /var/cache/yum
directory, which is depending on Red Hat Linux variant and
architecture.
If you want to store the downloaded file into a different
location, use the –downloaddir option, as shown below:
~]# yum install --downloadonly --downloaddir=/path/to/directory
httpd

LINUXCONCEPT
THANK YOU
You can check our website https://linuxconcept.com for
more similar information on Linux or opensource
technologies.

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