Yevlempy’s Blog

29.04.2009

10> yum command.

SUMMERY:

yum-yellowdog updater modified. yum is an interactive, automated update program which can be used for maintaining systems using rpm.

SYNTAX:

install

Is used to install the latest version of a package or group of packages while ensuring that all dependencies are satisfied. If no package matches the given package name(s), they are assumed to be a shell glob and any matches are then installed.

update

If run without any packages, update will update every currently installed package. If one or more packages are specified, Yum will only update the listed packages. While updating packages, yum will ensure that all dependencies are satisfied. If no package matches the given package name(s), they are assumed to be a shell glob and any matches are then installed.If the –obsoletes flag is present yum will include package obsoletes in its calculations – this makes it better for distro-version changes, for example: upgrading from somelinux 8.0 to somelinux 9.

check-update

Implemented so you could know if your machine had any updates that needed to be applied without running it interactively. Returns exit value of 100 if there are packages available for an update. Also returns a list of the pkgs to be updated in list format. Returns 0 and no packages are available for update.

upgrade

Is the same as the update command with the –obsoletes flag set. See update for more details.

remove or erase

Are used to remove the specified packages from the system as well as removing any packages which depend on the package being removed.

list

Is used to list various information about available packages; more complete details are available in the List Options section below.

provides or whatprovides

Is used to find out which package provides some feature or file. Just use a specific name or a file-glob-syntax wildcards to list the packages available or installed that provide that feature or file.

search

Is used to find any packages matching a string in the description, summary, packager and package name fields of an rpm. Useful for finding a package you do not know by name but know by some word related to it.

info

Is used to list a description and summary information about available packages; takes the same arguments as in the List Options section below.

clean

Is used to clean up various things which accumulate in the yum cache directory over time. More complete details can be found in the Clean Options section below.

shell

Is used to enter the ‘yum shell’, when a filename is specified the contents of that file is executed in yum shell mode. See yum-shell(8) for more info

resolvedep

Is used to list packages providing the specified dependencies, at most one package is listed per dependency.

localinstall

Is used to install a set of local rpm files. If required the enabled repositories will be used to resolve dependencies.

localupdate

Is used to update the system by specifying local rpm files. Only the specified rpm files of which an older version is already installed will be installed, the remaining specified packages will be ignored. If required the enabled repositories will be used to resolve dependencies.

deplist

Produces a list of all dependencies and what packages provide those dependencies for the given packages.

General Options

Most command line options can be set using the configuration file as

well and the descriptions indicate the necessary configuration option to set.

-h, –help

Help; display a help message and then quit.

-y

Assume yes; assume that the answer to any question which would be asked is yes.
Configuration Option: assume-yes

-c [config file]

Specifies the config file location – can take http, ftp urls and local file paths.

-d [number]

Sets the debugging level to [number] – turns up or down the amount of things that are printed. Practical range: 0 – 10
Configuration Option: debuglevel

-e [number]

Sets the error level to [number] Practical range 0 – 10. 0 means print only critical errors about which you must be told. 1 means print all errors, even ones that are not overly important. 1+ means print more errors (if any) -e 0 is good for cron jobs.
Configuration Option: errorlevel

-R [time in minutes]

Sets the maximum amount of time yum will wait before performing a command – it randomizes over the time.

-C

Tells yum to run entirely from cache – does not download or update any headers unless it has to to perform the requested action.

–version

Reports the yum version number and exits.

–installroot=root

Specifies an alternative installroot, relative to which all packages will be installed.
Configuration Option: installroot

–enablerepo=repoidglob

Enables specific repositories by id or glob that have been disabled in the configuration file using the enabled=0 option.
Configuration Option: enabled

–disablerepo=repoidglob

Disables specific repositories by id or glob.
Configuration Option: enabled

–obsoletes

This option only has affect for an update, it enables yum’s obsoletes processing logic. For more information see the update command above.
Configuration Option: obsoletes

–exclude=package

Exclude a specific package by name or glob from updates on all repositories.
Configuration Option: exclude

–noplugins

Run with all plugins disabled.
Configuration Option: plugins

List Options

The following are the ways which you can invoke yum in list mode. Note that all list commands include information on the version of the package.

yum list [all | glob_exp1] [glob_exp2] [...]

List all available and installed packages.

yum list available [glob_exp1] [...]

List all packages in the yum repositories available to be installed.

yum list updates [glob_exp1] [...]

List all packages with updates available in the yum repositories.

yum list installed [glob_exp1] [...]

List the packages specified by args. If an argument does not match the name of an available package, it is assumed to be a shell-style glob and any matches are printed.

yum list extras [glob_exp1] [...]

List the packages installed on the system that are not available in any yum repository listed in the config file.

yum list obsoletes [glob_exp1] [...]

List the packages installed on the system that are obsoleted by packages in any yum repository listed in the config file.

yum list recent

List packages recently added into the repositories.

Specifying package names

All the list options mentioned above take file-glob-syntax wildcards or package names as arguments, for example yum list available ‘foo*’ will list all available packages that match ‘foo*’. (The single quotes will keep your shell from expanding the globs.)

Clean Options

The following are the ways which you can invoke yum in clean

mode. Note that “all files” in the commands below means “all files in currently enabled repositories”. If you want to also clean any (temporarily) disabled repositories you need to use –enablerepo=’*’ option.

yum clean packages

Eliminate any cached packages from the system. Note that packages are not automatically deleted after they are downloaded.

yum clean headers

Eliminate all of the header files which yum uses for dependency resolution.

yum clean metadata

Eliminate all of the files which yum uses to determine the remote availability of packages. Using this option will force yum to download all the metadata the next time it is run.

yum clean dbcache

Eliminate the sqlite cache used for faster access to metadata. Using this option will force yum to recreate the cache the next time it is run.

yum clean all

Runs yum clean packages and yum clean headers as above.

EXAMPLES:

yum install packagename——–>       yum install openarena
yum whatprovides filename
yum remove appname
yum update.