2.3 Managing Software

Note

RHEL is essentially a set of RPM packages grouped to form an operating system. It is built around the Linux kernel and includes thousands of packages that are digitally signed, tested, and certified.

A software package is a group of files organized in a directory structure and metadata that makes up a software application. Files contained in a package include installable scripts, configuration files, library files, commands, and related documentation.

All metadata related to packages is stored at a central location and includes information such as package versioning, the location it is installed at, checksum values, and a list of included files with their attributes.

Usually, software packages follow a standard naming convention.

Note

name.version.release.architecture

Useful dnf and rpm commands

# Search package details for the given string
dnf search KEYWORD

# Display details about a package or group of packages
dnf info KEYWORD

# Find what package provides the given value
dnf provides */KEYWORD

# List files in the package
rpm -ql package_name

# Find the package that owns the file
rpm -qf file_name

TODO

dnf: find packages containing a file named httpd
dnf: install Apache HTTP Server
rpm: find which package owns the /etc/fedora-release file (to get the info start with rpm --help | grep what)
rpm: find what other files were installed by the above packet

Warning

Installing new software

There are lots of different ways to install software on Linux systems. Installing directly from your distros official software repositories is the safest option, but sometimes the application or version you want simply isn’t available that way. When installing via any other mechanism, make sure you’re getting the files from an official source for the project in question. |

Warning

Planning is for those who don’t know how to troubleshoot.

Solution to TODOs

dnf provides */httpd
dnf install httpd
rpm -qf /etc/fedora-release
rpm -ql httpd-2.4.37-10.fc29.x86_64