RHCSA - Managing Software

`dnf` / `yum` command

YUM used to be an acronym for Yellowdog Updater Modified, DNF is the revolution of YUM and it stands for Dandified YUM.
in RHEL 9 the yum command is just a symbolic link to dnf.
To search for a package:

dnf search <package_name>

To search what package provides a specific file use whatprovides or just provides option :

dnf whatprovides /usr/bin/ls
dnf provides */ssh

to get more information about a package:

dnf info <package_name>

To install a package (you need root privileges to install and remove packages):

dnf install <package_name>

You can install an rpm package on your file system or from a URL:

dnf install ~/Downloads/filename.rpm
dnf instal https://blahblah.com/filename.rpm

to remove a package:

dnf remove <package_name>

To list all software packages that are available:

dnf list

To list all software packages that are installed:

dnf list installed

To list all software packages that have updates:

dnf list updates

To show which version of a package is installed and which version is available as the most recent version in the repositories:

dnf list <package_name>

To list all installed packages whose names begin with “bash”:

$ dnf list installed "bash*"
Installed Packages
bash.x86_64                                                          5.2.15-1.fc37                                                @updates 
bash-completion.noarch                                               1:2.11-8.fc37                                                @anaconda

To list all packages available for installation from all enabled repos:

dnf repoquery

To list all packages available only from a specific repo:

dnf repoquery --repo <repo_name>

Determine if a package is available for installation in enabled repos:

dnf repoquery <package_name>

To update a package:

dnf update <package_name>

To show a list of transactoins done by dnf :

dnf history

To show information about a specific transacton (get the ID number from the output of the previous command:

dnf history info <ID>

To undo a transaction:

dnf history undo <ID>

To list your repos:

dnf repolist

Package Groups

Groups are virtual collections of packages that make it easier to manage specific functionality. For example, if you want to install the packages needed to work with kvm virtual machines, you can install the “virtualization” package group instead of installing all the packages needed individually
For an overview of all current groups:

dnf groups list

Some groups are not listed by default. To show all groups

dnf groups list hidden

To show installed groups:

dnf group list installed

To get information about the “Web Server” group:

dnf groups info "Web Server"

To install a group:

sudo dnf group install <group_name>

To update a group:

sudo dnf group update <group_name>

To remove a group:

sudo dnf group remove <group_name>

To display the number of installed and available package groups:

dnf group summary

Modules, Streams and Profiles

Modules are special package groups usually representing an application, a language runtime, or a set of tools
Modules are available in one or multiple streams which usually represent a major version of a piece of software.
A profile is a list of recommended packages that are installed together for a particular use case
To list available modules and information about their streams and profiles.

$ dnf modules list
...
Name                Stream            Profiles                          Summary                                                            
avocado             latest            default [d], minimal              Framework with tools and libraries for Automated Testing           
avocado             82lts             default, minimal                  Framework with tools and libraries for Automated Testing           
avocado-vt          latest            default                           Avocado Virt Test Plugin                                           
avocado-vt          82lts             default                           Avocado Virt Test Plugin                                           
cri-o               1.20              default [d]                       Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface for OCI-based containers    
cri-o               1.21              default [d]                       Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface for OCI-based containers    
cri-o               1.22              default [d]                       Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface for OCI-based containers    
cri-o               1.24              default                           Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface for OCI-based containers    
ghc                 8.10              all, default [d], minimal, small  Haskell GHC 8.10                                                   
ghc                 9.2               all, default, minimal, small      Haskell GHC 9.2                                                    
mariadb             10.5              client, devel, galera, server [d] MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server                
mariadb             10.6              client, devel, galera, server     MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server                
mariadb             10.7              client, devel, galera, server     MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server                
mariadb             10.8              client, devel, galera, server     MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server                
mariadb             10.9              client, devel, galera, server     MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server                
...
Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalled

As you can see, different versions of mariadb are available via different streams and 10.5 is the default stream and server is the default profile (Notice the [d])
To show information about mariadb module in all module streams:

dnf module info mariadb

To install a module:

sudo dnf module install <module-name>

To update a module:

sudo dnf module update <module-name>

To remove a module:

sudo dnf module remove <module-name>

To show information about a specific stream:

dnf module info mariadb:10.5

You can install a different stream in two ways:
1. by enabling the module and then installing the package:
```
sudo dnf enable mariadb:10.9
sudo dnf install mariadb
```
1. install the module directly:
```
sudo dnf install mariadb:10.9
```
To install a module specifying the stream and the profile :

sudo dnf module install NAME:STREAM/PROFILE

Example:

sudo dnf module install mariadb:10.9/client

To disable a module:

sudo dnf module disable <module-name>

Not specifying a stream or a profile causes dnf to choose the default
To reset the module so that neither stream is enabled or disabled:

sudo dnf module reset <module-name>

To list installed modules:

dnf module list --installed

To list enabled modules:

dnf module list --enabled

To list disabled modules:

dnf module list --disabled

`rpm` Command

rpm file names usually look like this:
To list all software installed on the machine

rpm -qa

to get a description of an installed package:

rpm -qi <package_name>

To list all files that are in the package.

rpm -ql <package_name>

To show all documentation available for the package:

rpm -qd <package_name>

To show all configuration files for the package:

rpm -qc <package_name>

To find the package name that a specific file belongs to

rpm -qf /etc/passwd

To query an rpm package file we use the -p option
To query an rpm package file to see the scripts it contains before installing (and you should when installing packages from unknown sources)

rpm -qp --scripts package.rpm

To show which parts of a specific package have been changed since installation:

sudo rpm -V <package_name>

To verify all installed packages and shows which parts of the package have been changed since installation:

sudo rpm -Va

To install a package:

sudo rpm -i package.rpm

To install a package and print progress -v and hash marks -h as the package archive is unpacked:

sudo rpm -ivh package.rpm

To upgrade a package:

sudo rpm -Uvh package.rpm

Info

If the package is not installed this will simply install the package

To remove (erase) a package:

sudo rpm -ev <package_name>

dnf / yum command#

Package Groups#

Modules, Streams and Profiles#

rpm Command#

`dnf` / `yum` command

Package Groups

Modules, Streams and Profiles

`rpm` Command