Yum Command Cheat Sheet

Yum is the package manager in Red Hat and Red Hat-based Linux distributions. It allows you to manage every aspect of software on your Red Hat system.

You are not going to learn Yum commands in detail here. Instead, this Yum cheat sheet provides you with a quick and easy overview of all major Yum package manager commands and their respective functionality.

You can download the Yum command cheat sheet in PDF form the link below:

Install, uninstall & upgrade packages

Here are the Yum commands for installing, removing and updating packages.

Command	Functionality	Example command
install	Install a package from yum repository	sudo yum install nginx
remove	Remove an installed package and its dependencies	sudo yum remove nginx
erase	Similar to remove command	sudo yum erase nginx
update	Update or or more packages on the system	sudo yum update or sudo yum update gcc
update-to	Update or or more packages to a specific version	sudo yum update-to ngingx-2.7-1.1
upgrade	update all packages to the latest version	sudo yum upgrade
reinstall	Reinstall current version of a specific package	sudo yum reinstall httpd
autoremove	Remove a package and all other unnecessary packages	sudo yum autoremove httpd
downgrade	Downgrade a specific package to an earlier version	sudo yum downgrade nginx
swap	Remove package and install another	sudo yum swap nginx httpd
localinstall	Install a package from a local repository	sudo yum localinstall http://127.0.0.1/baseos/nginx-a.b.b.c.rpm
groupinstall	Install packages from a specific group	sudo yum groupinstall "group name"

Base Package Commands

These commands will help you explore installed packages or search for packages from repositories.

Command	Functionality	Example
list	List package names from repositories	sudo yum list all
info	Show information about a specific package	sudo yum info nginx
search	Search for a package name and description	sudo yum search apache
updateinfo	Show information about available package updates	sudo yum updateinfo baseos
check-update	Show available package updates from enabled repositories	sudo yum check-update
grouplist	Show names and available package groups	sudo yum grouplist
deplist	Show dependencies for a specific package	sudo yum deplist vsftpd
provides	Locate the package that provides a specific file	sudo yum provides "*/bin/zsh"
groupinfo	Show description and contents of a package group	sudo yum groupinfo "group name"
help	Display yum help information or help on sub command	sudo yum help or sudo yum help list

Managing Yum Repos

For adding and managing additional repositories.

Command	Functionality	Example
repolist	List the available software repositories	sudo yum repolist
repo-pkgs	Use packages in a specific repository	sudo yum repo-pkgs baseos list
repoinfo	Show information about enabled repositories	sudo yum repoinfo baseos
makecache	Download repository data to cache	sudo yum makecache

Troubleshooting Yum

When things go wrong with Yum, use these commands.

Command	Functionality	Example
clean	Clean out all cached package data/clean all packages metadata	sudo yum clean packages or sudo yum clean all
check	Check local RPM db for problems	sudo yum check
history	View and use yum transactions	sudo yum history list or sudo yum history undo or sudo yum history redo
fssnapshot	Show LVM snapshots	sudo yum fs filters

Helpful Options

Common options to be used with Yum commands:

Command Option	Functionality	Example
-y	Assume yes if prompted	sudo yum -y install nginx
--assumeno	Assume no if prompted	sudo yum --assumeno install nginx
-v	Verbose	sudo yum -v install
-q	Quiet	sudo yum -q install
--noplugins	Do not load any YUM plugins	sudo yum --noplugins install
--disableplugin=	Deactivate a specific plugin	sudo yum --disableplugin=ps
--enableplugin=	Activate a specific plugin	sudo yum --enableplugin=ps
--changelogs	Show changelog info of a package	sudo yum --changelogs install httpd
---filter=??	Filter output for specific vendors, groups, architectures, and others.	sudo yum list available --filter=server
--enablerepo=	Enable a deactivated repo	sudo yum install nginx --enablerepo=??
--disablerepo=	Disable an activated repo	sudo yum install nginx --deactivaterepo=??
--downloadonly	Download package and no install	sudo yum install --downloadonly httpd

Extra Commands

Some additional commands that you may need to use once a while:

Commands	Functionality
reposync	Synchronize yum repo to local directory
show-installed	Show installed packages
verifytree	Check local repo for consistency
yumdb	Change yum database
yumdownloader	Download a package from repo to cwd
repouery	Query remote repo and local db
repoclosure	Get unmet dependency list
needs-restarting	Show processes that have been updated and require restart

If you feel lost at any time, you can always man yum.

Liked what you just saw? You can download the entire stuff in PDF format from the link below.