YUM Explained: Managing Software Packages on Linux

 yum (Yellowdog Updater, Modified)

YUM, or Yellowdog Updater, Modified, is a free, open-source tool that manages software packages for Linux systems:

What it does

YUM can install, update, remove, and query RPM software packages from official and third-party repositories. It can also automatically resolve dependencies during installation.

How it works

YUM is a front-end for the RPM package manager. It stores packages in software repositories or repos. Repos can be local or remote, and users can access them over a network connection.

How to use it

YUM has a command-line interface, but other tools provide graphical user interfaces. For example, to update all packages in the system, you can run the command yum update. To update only security-related packages, you can run the command yum update --security.

History

YUM was originally a rewrite of Yellowdog UPdater (YUP), a software updater for Yellow Dog Linux. A newer version of YUM called Dandified YUM (DNF) has replaced YUM as the default package manager in Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.