Cheat Sheet

Yum Package Manager Cheat Sheet

A quick list of the most useful and common commands for the yum package manager.

Captain Salem Jun 23, 2022 3 min read

Yum Package Manager Cheat Sheet

This Yum cheat sheet provides you with a quick and easy overview of all major Yum package manager commands and their respective functionality. Although it does not cover all the corners of the package manager, it provides with the most useful tools.

Install, uninstall & upgrade packages

Command	Functionality	Example command
`install`	Install a package from yum repository	`sudo yum install nginx`
`remove`	Remove an installed package and its dependencies from the system	`sudo yum remove nginx`
`erase`	Similar to remove command	`sudo yum erase nginx`
`update`	Update or or more packages on the system	`sudo yum update` or `sudo yum update gcc`
`update-to`	Update or or more packages to a specific version	`sudo yum update-to ngingx-2.7-1.1`
`upgrade`	update all packages to the latest version	`sudo yum upgrade`
`reinstall`	Reinstall current version of a specific package	`sudo yum reinstall httpd`
`autoremove`	Remove a package and all other unnecessary packages	`sudo yum autoremove httpd`
`downgrade`	Downgrade a specific package to an earlier version	`sudo yum downgrade nginx`
`swap`	Remove package and install another	`sudo yum swap nginx httpd`
`localinstall`	Install a package from a local repository	`sudo yum localinstall http://127.0.0.1/baseos/nginx-a.b.b.c.rpm`
`groupinstall`	Install packages from a specific group	`sudo yum groupinstall "group name"`

Base Package Commands

Command	Functionality	Example
`list`	List package names from repositories	`sudo yum list all`
`info`	Show information about a specific package	`sudo yum info nginx`
`search`	Search for a package name and description	`sudo yum search apache`
`updateinfo`	Show information about available package updates	`sudo yum updateinfo baseos`
`check-update`	Show available package updates from enabled repositories	`sudo yum check-update`
`grouplist`	Show names and available package groups	`sudo yum grouplist`
`deplist`	Show dependencies for a specific package	`sudo yum deplist vsftpd`
`provides`	Locate the package that provides a specific file	`sudo yum provides "*/bin/zsh"`
`groupinfo`	Show description and contents of a package group	`sudo yum groupinfo "group name"`
`help`	Display yum help information or help on sub command	`sudo yum help or sudo yum help list`

Managing Yum Repos

Command	Functionality	Example
`repolist`	List the available software repositories	`sudo yum repolist`
`repo-pkgs`	Use packages in a specific repository	`sudo yum repo-pkgs baseos list`
`repoinfo`	Show information about enabled repositories	`sudo yum repoinfo baseos`
`makecache`	Download repository data to cache	`sudo yum makecache`

Troubleshooting Yum

Command	Functionality	Example
`clean`	Clean out all cached package data/clean all packages metadata	`sudo yum clean packages or sudo yum clean all`
`check`	Check local RPM db for problems	`sudo yum check`
`history`	View and use yum transactions	`sudo yum history list or sudo yum history undo or sudo yum history redo`
`fssnapshot`	Show LVM snapshots	`sudo yum fs filters`

Helpful Options

Command Option	Functionality	Example
`-y`	Assume yes if prompted	`sudo yum -y install nginx`
`--assumeno`	Assume no if prompted	`sudo yum --assumeno install nginx`
-`v`	Verbose	`sudo yum -v install`
`-q`	Quiet	`sudo yum -q install`
`--noplugins`	Do not load any YUM plugins	`sudo yum --noplugins install`
`--disableplugin=`	Deactivate a specific plugin	`sudo yum --disableplugin=ps`
`--enableplugin=`	Activate a specific plugin	`sudo yum --enableplugin=ps`
`--changelogs`	Show changelog info of a package	`sudo yum --changelogs install httpd`
`---filter=??`	Filter output for specific vendors, groups, architectures, and others.	`sudo yum list available --filter=server`
`--enablerepo=`	Enable a deactivated repo	`sudo yum install nginx --enablerepo=??`
`--disablerepo=`	Disable an activated repo	`sudo yum install nginx --deactivaterepo=??`
`--downloadonly`	Download package and no install	`sudo yum install --downloadonly httpd`

Extra Commands

Commands	Functionality	Example
reposync	Synchronize yum repo to local directory	sudo yum reposync -r baseos
show-installed	Show installed packages
verifytree	Check local repo for consistency
yumdb	Change yum database
yumdownloader	download a package from repo to cwd
repouery	Query remote repo and local db
repoclosure	Get unmet dependency list
needs-restarting	Show processes that have been updated and requires restart

Closing

This cheat sheet covers major Yum commands and how to use them. To learn more, use the yum manual pages wit the command:

man yum

You can download this cheat sheet in the resource below:

Yum package manager cheat sheet

Yum package manager cheat sheet.pdf

Yum Package Manager Cheatsheet Download

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About the author

Captain Salem

A highly-skilled software engineer with a passion for teaching and sharing knowledge. From development to hardware, get articles with high technical accuracy, clarity, and an engaging writing style.

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