what is yum
 

Sorry everyone, might be a stupid question though I hope not. What is "yum". As I do research to determine the best approach to upgrade to KDE 3.2, I see reference to yum. I see usage and implementation, but no where, what it is, and a clear description of what it actually does beyond the semi obvious.

And as a newb, I do get frustrated when I see stuff like this:

Login as root. You can use /root/KDE32 as a download directory.
After downloading all the files to /root/kde32, create the yum header files:
# yum-arch -v /root/KDE32

This may make perfect sense to those with a good understanding of linux, but sorry, for me it creates more questions than answers. I know the Linux community is a great community as I have been living in the forums for weeks now. But at times when I read replies, it's like reading a 10 step procedure with a couple steps omitted, fill in the blanks, make your best assumption. I for one need to understand the consequences before I proceed, I don't just do it.

We all knew nothing once, and I want to learn, sorry for rambling.

roadhog

yum is a package downloader/installer. It was developed by the programers for YellowDog Linux. It's a distro based off RedHat that was setup to run on the PowerPC chip used in Macs. The program is Yellowdog Update Manager. It similar to Debian's apt. You can find a good deal of info at ayo.freshrpms.net .

It would be analogous to Windows Update, but better because you can set-up a number of different servers rather than just the windowsupdate.microsoft.com . You can also use it to install new or remove programs from your system.

When you run 'yum update' it downloads the lists of current files from the servers, compares the lists to what you have installed on your computer, then asks if you want to download and install any newer versions.

'yum install foo' would search the lists for the package foo, and download and install it if it is found. It will also download adn install any dependencies that are needed by the package you are trying to install.

'yum remove bar' would remove the package bar.

yum is the default for Fedora. I prefer apt, mostly because it's what I used on RedHat, and am familiar with it. Both do pretty much the same thing.

Thank you Ranger. Everyday I learn a little more and become a little bit more comfortable with Linux. I'll have to investigate yum once I have settle some other Linux woes.

roadhog