How to use YUM to manage packages – cPanel

Introduction

On "Enterprise Linux" variants--CentOS, CloudLinux, AlmaLinux, and RockyLinux--you can utilize the 'yum' utility to manage RPM packages installed on the system. On EL8 and above, it is recommended to use 'dnf' rather than 'yum,' however, both will work.

Ubuntu based systems should review similar instructions for the APT package manager.

Procedure

You can add, remove, and swap packages with the yum utility, as well as search and browse packages.

Installing a package

You can install a package using the command below where PACKAGE is the package name.

yum install PACKAGE

For example, if you want to install the PHP 7.4 Intl extension we just found.

yum install ea-php74-php-intl

Removing a package

You can remove a package with the command below, where PACKAGE is the package name.

yum remove PACKAGE

For example, removing the PHP 7.4 Intl extension we just installed.

yum remove ea-php74-php-intl

Note: Always review the packages that will be removed as the package you are attempting to remove may be a dependency of other packages. Removing needed packages could potentially result in irreparable damage to the server.

Updating a package

You can update a package with the command below, where PACKAGE is the package name.

yum update PACKAGE

For example, updating the sudo package.

yum update sudo

Updating all packages

You can update all packages by running the update command without any packages specified like so.

yum update

Replacing one package with another

If you're trying to replace a package with a different version, rather than remove and reinstall all of the packages that depend on it, you can swap the package:

yum swap -- install $NEW -- remove $OLD

or, if you need to handle multiple packages, you can enter the yum shell:

yum shell

remove $OLD1 $OLD2 $OLD3
install $NEW1 $NEW2 $NEW3
update $UPDATE1 $UPDATE2
run

Resources

Searching for a package by name or description

Searching for a package by contents

Searching for historical install information about a package

Ensure packages from an old repository are updated with packages from a new repository