Package Management Week: Tips & Tricks

Friday, April 20. 2007

Posted by Chris Tyler in Package Management Week at 00:01 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Package Management Week: Tips & Tricks

This week we are diverging from the usual daily themes to present a Focus Week on Package Management.
This site, the Fedora Daily Package, is all about the software packages included in Fedora Core and Fedora Extras. Fedora includes a number of powerful tools for managing packages, and this week will focus on those tools so that you can get the most out of your system.

Let's wrap up this Focus Week with a some tips and tricks in a Q&A format:

Q: I have an RPM file that did not come from a yum repository. I can install it with rpm -i packagefile, but then I have to solve the dependencies myself. Is there a way to install a package which is not from a repository, but use the yum repository system to resolve dependencies?

A: Yes -- use the yum command localinstall:

# yum localinstall packagefile.rpm

Q: Fedora provides an icon in the notification area/taskbar that shows when packages are available for upgrade. But I run a server, and there's usually no one logged into the GUI. How can I get my system to automatically install the latest updates, so that it is not left vulnerable to known security risks?

A: Configure yum-updatesd to automatically install available updates (click!).

Q: Yum seems dazed and confused, and I think it's due to some bad repository data being cached. How do I fix this?

A: Tell yum to erase cached data:

# yum clean all

Q: How do I configure my system so that I can undo package installations, removals, and updates?

A: Enable package rollbacks (click!).

Q. Is there a record of the packages installed, removed, and updated?

A: Yes: /var/log/yum.log

Q: How can I exclude certain packages from a yum update?

A: Specify the packages on the command line using the --exclude option, or add a line to /etc/yum.conf:

exclude kernel*

Note that you can use the * and ? metacharacters for pattern matching.

Q: Yum really hammers my Internet connection. Can I limit the amount of bandwidth used to download packages?

A: Add a line to /etc/yum.conf to specify the maximum download rate:

throttle 150k

This will set a maximum download speed of 150 kilobytes per second (remember that this is in kilobytes (k) or megabytes (M) -- if your line speed is in kilobits or megabits, divide it by 8 to 10 to get the line speed in bytes. For example, a 5 Mbps DSL line is capable of downloading at 500-600 kilobytes per second under ideal conditions).

Q: Where can I learn more about yum? RPM?

A: The yum website is http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/ and the RPM website (which is currently being relaunched) is http://rpm.org

This concludes our Focus Week on Package Management -- on Monday we'll return to featuring Fedora packages according to daily themes. In case you missed previous articles in this series, here are the links:

Monday - RPM Basics
Tuesday - Using the rpm command to query the package database as well as install, update, and remove packages.
Wednesday - Using yum
Thursday - Yum repositories and plugins

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thank you for your good work. i like fedora, except when firewire got broken.

keep up the help you provide.

brian in california

#1 brian on 2007-07-15 01:17 (Reply)

Thanks! The bandwidth limiting is what I was looking for

#2 Jiri Stransky on 2008-03-01 04:48 (Reply)

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