View Source: Yum - Waikato Linux Users Group

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An [Acronym] for __Y__ellowDog __U__pdater, __M__odified.

[Yum | http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/] is an "automatic updater and package installer/remover for [RPM] systems. It automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should occur to install packages. It makes it easier to maintain groups of machines without having to manually update each one using rpm."

Pros::
    Small updates (single file headers, only updated when changed), designed especially for [RPM] systems
Cons::
    Slow updates caused by of lots of small files, useless on [other distributions | Debian]

It was written for YellowDog Linux for the [PowerPC], but it has taken on a following since being adapted for RedHat and adopted as the official package distribution system for FedoraCore (replacing the RedHat Network.)

Compare with AptForRpm.

All the main FedoraRepositories support [Yum]; RedHat staff and other distributors who want to easily make packages available tend to use it instead of [APT].

Some users find that it does not work as well as advertised; see f.ex. [Fedora and the repository politics | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7263]. Of course, [YMMV].

There is now a nice front end for [Yum] if you use FedoraCore 4 or higher called yumex. To install just type
<pre>yum install yumex
</pre>

Also a note if upgrading from FedoraCore 3 to 4 and your yum breaks go back to a default yum.conf file as most repositories do not yet work for FedoraCore 4.

!! Overview of [Yum] commands

''Taken from the [Fedora Wiki|http://www.fedora.us/wiki/FedoraHOWTO].''

__List all available packages__::
    <pre>
    yum list
    </pre>
__See if there are updated packages available__::
    <pre>
    yum check-update
    # or
    yum list updates
    </pre>
__Update all installed packages that have a newer version available__::
    <pre>
    yum update
    </pre>
__Install specific packages and their dependencies__::
    <pre>
    yum install ''package(s)''
    </pre>
__Search all known packages entries (descriptions etc) for ''word''__::
    <pre>
    yum search ''word''
    </pre>
__Show basic information about a package__::
    <pre>
    yum info ''package''
    </pre>

All of the above commands can take shell-style wildcards (*,?) instead of a package name. Check the yum man page for more details.

----
CategoryFedora
8 pages link to Yum:
Last edited on Sunday, July 3, 2005 12:08:54 pm by IanMcDonald
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