linux-susel yum,YUM

Yum is the Fedora package manager that is able

to query for information about packages, fetch packages from

repositories, install and uninstall packages using automatic

dependency resolution, and update an entire system to the latest

available packages. Yum performs automatic

dependency resolution on packages you are updating, installing or

removing, and thus is able to automatically determine, fetch and

install all available dependent packages. Yum can

be configured with new, additional repositories, or package

sources, and also provides many plugins which enhance and

extend its capabilities. Yum is able to perform

many of the same tasks that RPM can; additionally,

many of the command line options are similar. Yum

enables easy and simple package management on a single machine or

on groups of them.

Secure Package Management with GPG-Signed Packages

Yum provides secure package management by

enabling GPG (Gnu Privacy Guard; also known as GnuPG) signature

verification on GPG-signed packages to be turned on for all package

repositories (i.e. package sources), or for individual

repositories. When signature verification is enabled,

Yum will refuse to install any packages not

GPG-signed with the correct key for that repository. This means

that you can trust that the RPM packages you

download and install on your system are from a trusted source, such

as the Fedora Project, and were not modified during transfer. Refer

to Section 1.3, “Configuring Yum and Yum Repositories” for details

on enabling signature-checking with Yum, or

Section 3.3, “Checking a Package's Signature” for information

on working with and verifying GPG-signed RPM

packages in general.

Yum also enables you to easily set up your own

repositories of RPM packages for download and

installation on other machines.

Learning Yum is a worthwhile investment because

it is often the fastest way to perform system administration tasks,

and it provides capabilities beyond those provided by the

PackageKit graphical package management tools.

Refer to Chapter 2, PackageKit for details on using

PackageKit.

1.1. Checking For and Updating Packages

1.1.1. Checking For Updates

You can use the yum check-update command to see

which installed packages on your system have updates available.

Note: Yum and Superuser

Privileges

You must have superuser privileges in order to use

yum to install, update or remove packages on your

system. All examples in this chapter assume that you have already

obtained superuser privileges by using either the su

or sudo command.

~]# yum check-update

Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit, security

PackageKit.x86_64 0.5.3-0.1.20090915git.fc12 fedora

PackageKit-glib.x86_64 0.5.3-0.1.20090915git.fc12 fedora

PackageKit-yum.x86_64 0.5.3-0.1.20090915git.fc12 fedora

PackageKit-yum-plugin.x86_64 0.5.3-0.1.20090915git.fc12 fedora

glibc.x86_64 2.10.90-22 fedora

glibc-common.x86_64 2.10.90-22 fedora

kernel.x86_64 2.6.31-14.fc12 fedora

kernel-firmware.noarch 2.6.31-14.fc12 fedora

rpm.x86_64 4.7.1-5.fc12 fedora

rpm-libs.x86_64 4.7.1-5.fc12 fedora

rpm-python.x86_64 4.7.1-5.fc12 fedora

yum.noarch 3.2.24-4.fc12 fedora

Twelve packages are listed as having updates available. The

first package in the list is PackageKit, the

graphical package manager. The first line of the above output tells

us:

PackageKit— the name of the package

x86_64— the CPU architecture the package was built

for

0.5.3-0.1.20090915git.fc12— the version of the

updated package to be installed

fedora— the repository in which the updated package

is located

The output also shows us that we can update the kernel (the

kernel package), Yum and RPM

themselves (the yum and rpm packages), as

well as their dependencies (such as the

kernel-firmware, rpm-libs and

rpm-python packages), all using yum.

1.1.2. Updating Packages

You can choose to update a single package, multiple packages, or

all packages at once. If any dependencies of the package (or

packages) you update have updates available themselves, then they

are updated too. To update a single package, enter yum update

:

~]# yum update glibc

Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit, security

Setting up Install Process

Resolving Dependencies

--> Running transaction check

--> Processing Dependency: glibc = 2.10.90-21 for package: glibc-common-2.10.90-21.x86_64

---> Package glibc.x86_64 0:2.10.90-22 set to be updated

--> Running transaction check

---> Package glibc-common.x86_64 0:2.10.90-22 set to be updated

--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

======================================================================

Package Arch Version Repository Size

======================================================================

Updating:

glibc x86_64 2.10.90-22 fedora 2.7 M

Updating for dependencies:

glibc-common x86_64 2.10.90-22 fedora 6.0 M

Transaction Summary

======================================================================

Install 0 Package(s)

Upgrade 2 Package(s)

Total download size: 8.7 M

Is this ok [y/N]:

This output contains two further items of

interest:

Loaded plugins: presto,

refresh-packagekit, security— yum always

informs you which Yum plugins are installed and

enabled. Here, yum is using the

presto, refresh-packagekit and

security plugins. Refer to Section 1.4, “Yum Plugins” for general information on

Yum plugins, or to Section 1.4.3, “Plugin Descriptions” for descriptions of

specific plugins.

kernel.x86_64— you can download and install new

kernels safely with yum.

Important: Updating and Installing Kernels with

Yum

Yum always installs a new

kernel in the same sense that RPMinstalls

a new kernel when you use the command rpm -i kernel.

Therefore, you do not need to worry about the distinction between

installing and upgrading a kernel package when

you use yum: it will do the right

thing, regardless of whether you are using the yum

update or yum install command.

When using RPM, on the other hand, it is

important to use the rpm -i kernel command (which

installs a new kernel) instead of rpm -u kernel (which

replaces the current kernel). Refer to Section 3.2.2, “Installing” for more information on

installing/updating kernels with RPM.

yum presents the update information and then

prompts you as to whether you want it to perform the update;

yum runs interactively by default. If you already know

which transactions yum plans to perform, you can use

the -y option to automatically answer yes

to any questions yum may ask (in which case it runs

non-interactively). However, you should always examine which

changes yum plans to make to the system so that you

can easily troubleshoot any problems that might arise.

If a transaction does go awry, you can view

Yum's log of transactions by entering cat

/var/log/yum.log at the shell prompt. The most recent

transactions are listed at the end of the log file.

Updating All Packages and Their Dependencies

To update all packages and their dependencies, simply enter

yum update (without any

arguments):

~]# yum update

Example 1.1. Updating all packages at once

1.1.3. Updating Security-Related Packages

Discovering which packages have security updates available and

then updating those packages quickly and easily is important.

Yum provides the security plugin

for this purpose. The security plugin extends the

yum command with a set of highly-useful

security-centric commands, subcommands and options. Refer to

Section 1.4.3, “security (yum-plugin-security)” for specific

information.

1.1.4. Preserving Configuration File Changes

You will inevitably make changes to the configuration files

installed by packages as you use your Fedora system.

RPM, which Yum uses to perform

changes to the system, provides a mechanism for ensuring their

integrity. Refer to Section 3.2.4, “Upgrading” for details on how to manage changes

to configuration files across package upgrades.