Download, install, update, erase rpm packages using yum

yum – basics

yum – Red Hat tool for RPM package management used to download, install update, erase or list info about system packages

/etc/yum.repos.d/ -> list of configured repositories (web or ftp sites) that will be searched to download and install RPM packages

To view which repositories you have enabled:

yum repolist enabled
repo id -> repo name -> status
InstallMedia -> Fedora 8 -> enabled
fedora -> Fedora 8 – x86_64 -> enabled
updates -> Fedora 8 – x86_64 – Updates -> enabled

Working with yum:

yum install <package_name> -> will search, download and install requested package (e.g.: yum install gcc)

yum update -> will search for available updates and install them to your system

yum check-update -> will look for available updates for your system

yum upgrade -> similar to yum update, but tries to upgrade all your obsolete packages

yum remove (or erase) <packge_name> -> will remove previously installed package and its dependencies (e.g.: yum remove gcc)

yum search <package_name> -> search for package descriptions

yum clean packages -> cleans yum cache in /var/cache/yum/…

yum info <package_name> -> displays info about requested package (similar to rpm -qi) (e.g.: yum info gcc)

For complete options see man page