Getting Started

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First, open a terminal. Check that Yum is installed and working by simply typing

 $ yum 

This brings up the usage options for Yum and lets you know that you have it installed.

After you have verified that Yum is available, you should switch to super-user and enter the following command:

 # yum check-update 

This command initializes Yum and asks it to scan the installed RPMs on your machine, scan the repositories for header files, and then start building a cache of header file. After several minutes of frantic activity, Yum will have completed its local cache of header files and will be ready for you to start downloading and installing updates and new software.

To perform a quick and easy update of all the software on your system, enter the following command

 # yum update 

This asks Yum to download header information from the registered repositories, check that against your current installed packages, and update any that are marked as having new versions. This can take some time, depending on how often you run the command and how many packages you have installed on your system. Of course, if you have a cable or DSL connection, it will be quicker, but dial-up users should be warned that they might need to go away and make a few cups of coffee while Yum does its work.

When Yum has finished downloading the headers and working out dependencies, you are prompted with a list of the packages to be updated or installed and asked to give the go-ahead. Enter y at the command prompt and Yum commences downloading the RPM files.

After the download has finished, Yum runs the installation and a test to ensure that everything completed correctly. After Yum is satisfied that everything is present and correct, you are returned to the command prompt with a freshly updated system.

This is great when you want to update your entire system, but what if you want to update only certain packages? Again, Yum can easily take care of this for you. You can identify the package you want and then use Yum to check for its availability by using the command shown here:

 # yum list <packagename> 

This command asks Yum to cross-reference the package name with packages registered at the repositories and let you know what is available. You can use wildcards as part of the command to find out which associated packages are available. For instance, the command

 # yum list kde* 

searches for any packages containing kde, which is useful if you want to selectively update packages. Use the command shown here to update the single package:

 # yum update <packagename> 

Or use this command to update more than one package at a time:

 # yum update <packagename1> <packagename2> 

Of course, when Yum is processing the required packages, it also solves any dependency issues. You will get the opportunity to not only see the packages that will be updated, but also see which packages were required to satisfy dependency issues.

About Yum

Yum is not developed by Red Hat itself. Instead, Duke University has the honor of being the creators and maintainers of Yum and its related technology. In particular, Seth Vidal has spent a lot of time and effort ensuring that Yum improves in both speed and functionality. Subscribe to the Yum mailing list at https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/mailman/listinfo/yum for the latest information and updates on Yum.


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    Red Hat Fedora 4 Unleashed
    Red Hat Fedora 4 Unleashed
    ISBN: 0672327929
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 361

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