LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 04-14-2005, 10:03 PM   #1
giovannym
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Fontana, California
Distribution: RHEL
Posts: 22

Rep: Reputation: 15
RPM or Yum?


Hello everyone,

I am fairly new to the linux world so let me apologize in advance if I say something that isn't quite correct.

what is the best way to update packages? I know RPM is there, but I've heard some people refer to it as dependency hell. I've also heard some people talk about Yum (never used it) and they say it's much better. So, I wanted to gage and see what everyone thought of as the better way to update packages.

Thanks
 
Old 04-14-2005, 10:18 PM   #2
tuxrules
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Chicago
Distribution: Slackware64 -current
Posts: 1,158

Rep: Reputation: 62
well you should use YUM period. Its much more easier than figuring out dependencies. But before you start using it you will have to add repositories to your yum.conf file so that you can fetch packages from all major sources

good repos are
http://www.dag.wieers.com
http://rpm.livna.org
http://www.fedora.us

#man yum - to find out more on YUM.

#yum update - to update the sync local repos with the remote repos...

#yum install <package name> and dependencies will be taken care of.

Google for yum repositories and you'll get many hits...

Tuxrules

p.s: didn't notice you were on red hat...these repos also have red hat packages...so you should be good.

Last edited by tuxrules; 04-14-2005 at 10:20 PM.
 
Old 04-14-2005, 10:48 PM   #3
giovannym
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Fontana, California
Distribution: RHEL
Posts: 22

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
tuxrules,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I kinda figured you might say yum, I have heard a lot of good things about it. I think I will suggest it here at work. We are currently running all our applications of windows 2k server but our new IT director is wanting to go to linux, so all these questions came up. Thanks again

 
Old 04-15-2005, 03:09 AM   #4
reddazz
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: N. E. England
Distribution: Fedora, CentOS, Debian
Posts: 16,298

Rep: Reputation: 77
A very good alternative to yum is apt, if you would like to try that out at some point. It has a good gui frontend called synaptic.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 07:03 AM   #5
munthe
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Denmark
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 38

Rep: Reputation: 15
Yum also hat a frontend called 'gyum',
 
Old 04-15-2005, 07:51 AM   #6
wmakowski
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Ohio
Distribution: Fedora 25, 26, RHL 5.2
Posts: 560

Rep: Reputation: 56
I don't have RHEL, but if it is like the other Red Hat products it comes with up2date. up2date will find and install any dependencies you need. If for example you didn't have XFree86 installed you could type up2date XFree86 at a command line and it would get everything you need and install it.

Just to give you a little more info, all of the packages mentioned - yum, apt, up2date and a few others use rpm to do the real installation work behind the scenes. RPM has its uses too, especially when dealing with src.rpm's and tar.gz's that include spec files.

Bill
 
Old 04-15-2005, 08:09 AM   #7
Blash
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Distribution: OpenBSD 4.6
Posts: 54

Rep: Reputation: 15
So what is a Repository? What(how) do I do with them?
 
Old 04-15-2005, 10:22 AM   #8
yoshi789
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: May 2004
Posts: 4

Rep: Reputation: 0
Actually yum, apt, and up2date all use RPMs. What makes them easier is that they automate the process of checking for updates, downloading, checking/obtaining dependencies, and installing the RPMs.

All that to say that a repository is a collection of RPMs and header files used in the process automation. This means that repositories will be specific to the tool being used a typically is just a remote directory accessed by ftp or http.

Of the three tools mentioned I'm kinda partial to yum, but apt repositories are easier to find. But, still check the rep of your repository.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 08:12 PM   #9
Jaxån
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Sweden
Distribution: Debian
Posts: 142

Rep: Reputation: 15
Actually, apt is from Debian distribution and works with dpkg. RPMS support is added afterward. Debian is a REAL good distribution for servers. Have a look at <http://www.debian.org/>. Good news is that it's a new version in the pipline now (named testing).

They have automatic update (and for security to) for years.

But if you have support from someone else, you should use what they have.

Repository is a storage for packages (or other type of files). It could be ftp or http-site.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 09:04 PM   #10
reddazz
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: N. E. England
Distribution: Fedora, CentOS, Debian
Posts: 16,298

Rep: Reputation: 77
In this instance switching to Debian does not help the person who asked the question understand more about rpms.
 
Old 04-15-2005, 11:41 PM   #11
Blash
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Distribution: OpenBSD 4.6
Posts: 54

Rep: Reputation: 15
I still don't get it, do I download Repository and add add it to yum or what not?
 
Old 04-15-2005, 11:54 PM   #12
reddazz
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: N. E. England
Distribution: Fedora, CentOS, Debian
Posts: 16,298

Rep: Reputation: 77
You don't download a repository. A repository is a site where rpms for a specific distribution are stored and they can be downloaded from there manually or installed on your system using package managment tools such as yum or apt. The most common repositoris for Fedora are fedora.us, fedoraproject and third party repositories are freshrpms, dag etc. if you use these rpm repositories in conjunction with a package manager such as apt or yum, package management is easy because all dependencies for that particular package are autoatically resolvd, meaning that you don't have to worry about installing each individual dependent package manually.

You add your repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list for apt and /etc/yum.conf for YUM. To find out more information about apt and youm, go to dags website and freshrpms. Also do a search on google and you will come up with more documenation.

Last edited by reddazz; 04-16-2005 at 12:13 AM.
 
Old 04-16-2005, 12:04 AM   #13
Blash
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2005
Distribution: OpenBSD 4.6
Posts: 54

Rep: Reputation: 15
What is the difference between YUM and yum?
 
Old 04-16-2005, 12:12 AM   #14
reddazz
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: N. E. England
Distribution: Fedora, CentOS, Debian
Posts: 16,298

Rep: Reputation: 77
Same difference. Its the same thing, some capitise others don't. I sometimes capitalise because YUM stands for YellowDog Update Manager.
 
Old 04-16-2005, 12:23 AM   #15
rarsa
Member
 
Registered: Nov 2004
Location: Canada
Distribution: Puppy Linux/ Mint
Posts: 211

Rep: Reputation: 31
Quote:
I still don't get it, do I download Repository and add add it to yum or what not?
The best way to learn about YUM is from here ---> http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/

Here is the digested version:

Think of a repository as a web site with the filles that you may require to install or update.

You configure a YUM client to access repositories (YUM servers)

To configure a repository you add a repository definition file to your computer.

Some distributions already come with a few repositories configured. (e.g. fedora core 3 has fedora and fedora-updates)

When you find a repository that you like, you normally download the configuration file from the repository home page or follow the instructions provided there.

For example in Fedora core 3 to access the freshrpms repository you need to create the following file

Code:
/etc/yum.repos.d/freshrpms.repo
the content of that file is something like

Code:
# $Id: freshrpms.repo 2478 2004-11-11 22:44:01Z dude $ 
[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 
gpgcheck=1
You can configure multiple repositories. Most packages exist in more than one repository so if you find that a repository has the same packages as another but with a different version, you explicitly exclude the packages you don't want (read the "man yum" for the details)

I hope this summary made it clearer for you.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
yum version yum-2.0.5-0.9.2.legacy.noarch.rpm master Red Hat 6 05-13-2005 03:03 PM
Fedora + yum - rpm-python = :( BrokenBrick Linux - Software 1 03-11-2005 08:41 PM
Yum - can it install any rpm? sybil Linux - Newbie 2 07-05-2004 04:50 PM
RPM and Yum are not responding? tcurt Linux - Newbie 2 05-30-2004 10:59 PM
rpm and Yum Hangs cryzpene Linux - Newbie 0 05-25-2004 09:07 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:42 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration