Updating Fedora Core 3 with yum

The yum tool (Yellow Dog updater, modified) is used to keep Fedora Core 3 up-to-date and to install new software. Use it to check the Fedora site, looking for updates to any of the packages you have installed, as well as for core OS updates and security patches. One of the best features of yum is that it automatically determines (and, better yet, installs) any dependencies for the packages you're installing.

Tips

• Before you start using yum, you might want to grab the improved configuration file from the Fedora FAQ Web site (www.fedorafaq.org/samples/yum.conf).

• Move your current /etc/yum.conf file to yum.conf.orig, and then install the new yum.conf. The yum.conf from fedorafaq.org tells yum to use various Fedora mirror sites, which might speed up your yum operations.

  Note that this new yum.conf file does add a few extra repositories that aren't normally checked by yum for updates.

• The first time you run yum it will download package information for every known package. Depending on how fast your network is, this could take some time.

• You might prefer to use up2date, a front end to yum.

To update the system with yum

1.	Open a Terminal window by clicking the Red Hat logo icon in the bottom left of the screen, then System Tools, then Terminal. Code listing B.1. Checking for updates to Fedora Core. [chrish@fedora ~] sudo yum check-update Password: Gathering header information files(s) from server(s) Server: Fedora Core 2.90 Development Tree Finding updated packages Downloading needed headers . . .
2.	yum check-update Use the yum check-update command to see if there are updated packages to install (Code Listing B.1). If no updated packages are listed, you're already up-to-date.
3.	yum update Use the yum update command to update the packages already installed on your system (Code Listing B.2). The yum command downloads updated package information (if necessary), checks for dependencies, and asks you to verify the operation it's about to perform. Code listing B.2. Updating the installed packages. [chrish@fedora ~] sudo yum update Password: Gathering header information file(s) from server(s) Server: Fedora Core 2.90 Development Tree Finding updated packages Downloading needed headers Resolving dependencies Dependencies resolved I will do the following: [update: zlib-devel 1.2.1.2-1.i386] [update: zlib 1.2.1.2-1.i386] Is this ok [y/N]:
4.	Press Y, and then press Enter to continue. The yum command downloads and installs the changed packages, bringing your system up-to-date.

Tips

• Use yum's -y option to automatically answer yes to any prompts. Be careful!

• Specify one or more package names in the yum update command to update only those packages:

   [chrish@fedora ~] sudo yum update  bash 

  
  

• Use up2date -v -u if you're having trouble getting connections to the yum repository; it randomly chooses from a list of known mirrors and updates the installed packages in your system.