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Fedora Core 3 - Automatic and Manual Updates

Introduction
Configuration - the keys
Check for updates
Do a manual update
Turn on automatic updates
Clean up lady
History
Copyright and License
Disclaimer

Introduction

The tool is yum or, in it's full name, "Yellow dog Updater, Modified". From his home page, here is a short description: " Yum is an automatic updater and package installer/remover for rpm systems. It automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should occur to install packages. It makes it easier to maintain groups of machines without having to manually update each one using rpm. "

In this document I present the way I am using it for Fedora Core 3 updates.

Configuration - the keys

The packages are signed and the keys used to verify the signatures must be imported for the verification process to work. If you did not mess with yum's configuration the verification of packages should be set. To import the key, execute the following commands:

# rpm --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY
# rpm --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora

In the previous listing, I have assumed that the keys are in the /usr/share/rhn/ location, as they are in a default configuration. If the keys are not there, search them:

# find / -name RPM-GPG-KEY

and change the path for rpm --import command accordingly.

Check for updates

For the first time, do a manual chack for updates:

# yum check-update

It should find "a lot of" updates. If yum returns an error, it is most likely related to the network connectivity problems.

Do a manual update

To be sure that updates are performed, do a manual update:

# yum update

The following things should happend:

yum will start to download the header informations for packages
on the screen, the packages list and download progress shoul be displayed
you must confirm yum's "Is this ok [y/N]" question with y for update process to continue
yum will download the packages displaing the downloading progress
after downloading, the installation shoul start

If you get installation errors, try to see what the problems is. The messages should be explicitelly enough. I have gottoed errors because I did not had enough free space. I have updated manually some packages by issuing commands like this:

# yum update <packageName>

Turn on automatic updates

To turn on automatic updates, execute the following commands:

# chkconfig yum on
# service yum start

This way yum will be launched by a cron script every night

Clean up lady

From time to time do a clean up for old downloaded data by executing:

# yum clean

Happy "yuming" !

History

20 June 2005, First version.

Copyright and License

Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There may be errors and inaccuracies that could be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, the author do not take any responsibility.

All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.

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Last page modification is 20 June 2005