With Yum installed and configured, you can begin using it. You might want to begin by typing the following command:
# yum check-update
This command checks your system against the Yum repositories configured in /etc/yum.conf and /etc/yum.repos.d/. The output of this command can be quite verbose. The command’s speed depends on the speed of your network connection and the load at the Yum repository sites. If your system needs no updates, the command returns a value of 0; if any packages need updates, the return value is 100 and the program displays a list of the packages that require updates. This command doesn’t actually download or install any packages, though.
yum check-update is a safe way to begin using yum; it shows you what the program will do when you use it to perform a system upgrade, but without actually modifying any installed packages. If you see error messages or spot upgrades you didn’t anticipate or don’t want, you can take measures to avoid the problems. For instance, you can upgrade individual packages rather than your whole system, as described shortly.
To upgrade all the packages on your system, you can type either of the following commands:
# yum -y update # yum -y upgrade
These commands have identical effects, except that the upgrade command activates logic in Yum for handling obsolete packages. (This same feature can be activated by using the ––obsoletes option along with…
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