Fedora Linux

Using Repositories

RPM is a great package manager, but to really use packages efficiently, you’ll need to use RPM along with a repository system so that your Fedora system can access remote libraries of software. Having access to the repository enables the automatic resolution of dependency issues, so that when you select a software package for installation, all required associated software is also installed automatically.

How Do I Do That?

Fedora uses the yum repository system. The apt system was used in earlier versions of Fedora and is still available, but most of the community’s attention has shifted to yum, primarily because it supports multiple architectures—useful when running 32-bit software (such as a 32-bit browser, for compatibility with closed-source plug-ins) on a 64-bit system.

Using yum from the command line

Using yum to install software is easy; just specify the install command and the package name you want installed as an argument:

# yum 
                  install 
                  
                     abe
                   Setting up Install Process Setting up repositories updates-released 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00 extras 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 base 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00 Reading repository metadata in from local files primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 336 kB 00:01 updates-re: ################################################## 987/987 Added 24 new packages, deleted 43 old in 2.06 seconds Parsing package install arguments Resolving Dependencies --> Populating ...