Yum package manager

Yum (Yellowdog Updater Modified) is a powerful and user-friendly package manager used in Red Hat-based Linux distributions, including CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Fedora. It simplifies software management by automatically resolving dependencies, searching repositories, installing, updating, and removing packages.

Basic Yum commands

The general syntax for Yum commands is:

yum [option] [command] [package_name]

Installing packages

• Install a single package:

  yum install package_name
  

• Install multiple packages:

  yum install package1 package2 package3
  

• Install a package from a local .rpm file:

  yum install /path/to/package.rpm
  

Removing packages

yum remove package_name

or

yum erase package_name

Searching for packages

• Search by package name:

  yum list package_name
  

• Search in name and description:

  yum search keyword
  

• Find which package provides a specific file:

  yum provides filename
  

Updating the system and packages

• Update all packages on the system:

  yum update
  

• Update a specific package:

  yum update package_name
  

Downloading a package without installing it

yumdownloader package_name

Viewing package dependencies

yum deplist package_name

Useful options

• --nogpgcheck — disable GPG signature checking (use with caution):

  yum install package.rpm --nogpgcheck
  

• -y — automatically answer "yes" to all prompts:

  yum update -y
  

Best practices

• Update the package cache before installing or updating:

  yum makecache
  

• Clean the cache:

  yum clean all
  

• View operation history:

  yum history
  

Yum remains a reliable tool for CentOS 7, Rocky Linux 8, and AlmaLinux 8. However, on newer versions (Rocky Linux 9, AlmaLinux 9, and above), it is recommended to use the modern successor — DNF.