Mark Alford's yum summary (Fedora Core 4)

Last modified 29 Aug 2005

I also have information on yum in Fedora Core 3

I use yum to keep my system updated. Here is my step-by-step procedure:

1. Each repository is controlled by a file in /etc/yum.repos.d/. Specify the URL(s) of each repository you want to use by including them in the "baseurl" line of the file. Mostly the defaults are OK.

   /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo:
   ----
   [base]
   name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Base
   baseurl=http://fedora.server4you.net/fedora/core/$releasever/$basearch/os/
   # mirrorlist=http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors/fedora-core-$releasever
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
   ----
   
   /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo:
   ----
   [updates-released]
   name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Released Updates
   baseurl=http://fedora.server4you.net/fedora/core/updates/$releasever/$basearch/
   # mirrorlist=http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors/updates-released-fc$releasever
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
   ----
   

   For Fedora Extras, I added a nearby mirror to the list. The Fedora mirror list is useful for that.

   /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-extras.repo:
   ----
   [extras]
   name=Fedora Extras $releasever - $basearch
   baseurl=http://rh-mirror.linux.iastate.edu/pub/fedora/extras/$releasever/$basearch/,http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/$releasever/$basearch/
   mirrorlist=http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors/fedora-extras-$releasever
   enabled=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-extras
   gpgcheck=1
   ----
   

2. To have access to the freshRPMs repository of useful extra packages, go to that site and download and install freshrpms-release-1-1.fc.fr.rpm. Then uncomment the url in /etc/yum.repos.d/freshrpms.repo:

   ----
   [freshrpms]
   name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Freshrpms
   baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms/
   mirrorlist=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/mirrors-freshrpms
   enabled=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms
   gpgcheck=1
   ----
   

   Now you can access that repository with yum. Eg to get the xine program for viewing movies and DVDs, you type

   > yum install xine
   

   and it follows all the dependencies and installs xine and everything it needs to function.
3. To have access to the Dries RPM repository of useful extra packages, go to that site and download the GPG key, and copy it to /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-dries. It is simply a text file beginning with '-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----'. Then create a repository file /etc/yum.repos.d/dries.repo:

   ----
   [dries]
   name=Extra Fedora rpms dries - $releasever - $basearch
   baseurl=http://rh-mirror.linux.iastate.edu/pub/dag/dries/fedora/fc$releasever/$basearch/dries/RPMS/,http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/dries/RPMS/
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-dries
   enabled=1
   ----
   

   Now you can access that repository with yum.
4. If your system is up all the time, you can tell it to run yum every night:

   > chkconfig yum on
   

5. A quick summary of useful yum commands:

   yum update    # brings your system up to date
   yum --exclude 'openoffice*' update  # exclude big unnecessary stuff
   yum clean packages   # delete already installed package files
   

Copyright © Mark Alford (2005)

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