Linux: YUM Package Management
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In an earlier instalment we learned about the Red Hat Package Manager, or RPM. RPM is a powerful tool, to be sure, but to really have a robust package management system we need more. YUM, which stands for the Yellow Dog Updater, Modified, was created to leverage the existing RPM system into something far more powerful.
Yellow Dog Linux is a Linux distribution for Power and PowerPC architectures. It was a major player in the Linux space starting in 1999 at a time when the Mac PowerPC hardware was popular and common and Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) was the key distribution for that platform. Yellow Dog Linux still exists today but it has been a very long time since Yellow Dog was a significant player in the Linux space. Yellow Dog's first package management system was the Yellow Dog Updater or YUP. For more than fifteen years, Yellow Dog's primary legacy has been in creating the key package management ecosystem for Linux.
YUM brings many features to the RPM system, the key ones being the addition of official repositories (official in the sense that the YUM tools have an authorized list on the system in question) and dependency management which together allow for automated patching and upgrading of packages. (In the Debian, Ubuntu and Mint world, the YUM equivalent is APT.)
Understanding RPM packages and how they work is important, but nearly all package management on the RPM family of Linux distros (RHEL, CentOS, Oracle, Scientific, Fedora and more) is done via YUM. As a Linux System Administration, few tools will be more commonly used. It is considered best practice to use YUM, rather than RPM directly, whenever possible as this allows for more robust control and tracking of the system. YUM also provides logging features which make it far easier to track changes to a system over time.
YUM has been critical within the RPM ecosystem since the early 2000s and considered the key utility for package managed by the middle of the decade. However, at this time, YUM is showing its age and a new system called DNF has begun to replace it (at this time, only on Fedora, but this will spread and is expected to be the standard on RHEL 8 and CentOS 8.)
The most important things to understand with YUM is that it is based around working with repositories - collections of packages that go together. Systems like CentOS have their own "system" repositories where the official packages are kept. They have extended repositories as well. And many people create custom repositories for special purposes that vary from people just wanting newer or different packages tested for an OS or vendors wanting to supply their own software in a convenient way. And, of course, internally you are able to create your own YUM repositories for managing packages from your own organization. YUM repositories are powerful and convenient and have become one of the key features making Linux amazingly powerful for organizations and convenient for end users.
Part of a series on Linux Systems Administration by Scott Alan Miller
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Why the need to replace instead upgrade?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Why the need to replace instead upgrade?
With DNF, you mean?
yes.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Why the need to replace instead upgrade?
With DNF, you mean?
yes.
Learn that when he writes that article. If you look at the master post, he has one setup for it.
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As of CentOS 7, DNF isn't even an option. Yum is the only thing to use.
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@NerdyDad said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
As of CentOS 7, DNF isn't even an option. Yum is the only thing to use.
Correct. But it has been in fedora for a while now.
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@scottalanmiller said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
@NerdyDad said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
As of CentOS 7, DNF isn't even an option. Yum is the only thing to use.
Correct. But it has been in fedora for a while now.
Is dnf the default in Fedora now?
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@dafyre said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
@scottalanmiller said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
@NerdyDad said in Linux: YUM Package Management:
As of CentOS 7, DNF isn't even an option. Yum is the only thing to use.
Correct. But it has been in fedora for a while now.
Is dnf the default in Fedora now?
Yes
