[CentOS, Fedora] Yum for novice user

There are a lot to learn about Yum, for novice user below are a few very useful method to get you started with installation using Yum:

• # yum install XXXXX

This command is to install a known program. Normally a program would end with "x86_64" for 64-bit CentOS / Fedora.

• # yum search XXXXX

This is very useful when you know the name of the software, but do not know how the repo name it. Wildcard is not supported here, because no matter what you type, it will treat is a "contain", mean if I search for "fire", I could eventually get "Firefox".

• # yum list XXXXX

List is similar to search, but wildcard is not enabled by default. So if you wanna search for "Firefox", you have to type "fire*".

• # yum groupinstall XXXXX

Group install is very useful not only to resolve dependencies, but it also helps by installing other features that require by particular software. For example, Libre Office, by default installation, it would sometimes not appear in the Application Menu. By doing groupinstall all LibreOffice program will be added to the application menu automatically.

* I have not really dig into the groupinstall behaviour, so might explain wrongly here. To be precise, here's how yum.baseurl.org explained:

Despite their differing names both of these commands perform the same function. They will attempt to install/update all of the packages in the group that are of the types 'default' or 'mandatory' (by default). (To change this types of packages edit the value of the group_package_types option in yum.conf.) And they will install any additional dependencies needed by any of the installing/updating packages.

• # yum update

As the name suggest, this is use to update the system to the latest available patches. Worth to mention here, for those who use Ubuntu / Fedora / CentOS together might get confused a bit, as Ubuntu apt-get update is only to update the repository, but not to perform update to the system. Use apt-get upgrade instead.

I hope this will help many who just start playing around with Yum. Have fun!