Software Management with YUM

YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) is the package management tool used on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its derived versions, CentOS and Scientific Linux. It acts as a front end to the RPM Package Manager (RPM), and is used to install, remove, and update software on Red Hat based systems.

I first encountered YUM when installing Yellow Dog Linux on PowerPC based Macintosh computers back at the dawn of the 21st century.  When I switched over to Debian based GNU/Linux systems with the release of Ubuntu in 2004, I completely lost touch with the RPM world until my Spring semester Linux System Administration course's pursuit of RHCSA certification brought me back into the fold.

I am writing this post to use as a handy list of the most common things I need to do when managing software:

1. Update the software on the system
   

   $ yum check-update
   $ sudo yum update package_name
   $ sudo yum update [to update all packages]
   $ sudo yum group update group_name
   

2. List all the currently installed software
   

   $ yum list installed
   $ yum list installed "global expression"
   

3. Search for available packages
   

   $ yum list available "global expression"
   $ yum search term...
   

4. Display information about a package
   

   $ yum info package_name
   

5. Install a new package
   

   $ sudo yum install package_name
   

6. Remove an existing package
   

   $ sudo yum remove package_name
   

7. List the current repos
   

   $ yum repolist
   $ yum repolist -v
   

That covers the basics. I also need to learn how to clean up the cruft that accumulates over time as a system is run, in Debian land the kind of thing that would be done with $ sudo apt-get autoremove. It seems that in RPM space that is accomplished with the package-cleanup utility, so I'll look into that.

Resources

• YUM Chapter from Red Hat System Administrator's Guide
• How to clean installed rpms using package-cleanup