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Chapter 6. Software management

6.1. Notable changes to the YUM stack

6.1.1. Package management with YUM/DNF

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, installing software is ensured by the YUM tool, which is based on the DNF technology (YUM v4). We deliberately adhere to usage of the yum term for consistency with previous major versions of RHEL. However, if you type dnf instead of yum, the command works as expected because yum is an alias to dnf for compatibility.

For more details, see Installing, managing, and removing user-space components.

6.1.2. Advantages of YUM v4 over YUM v3

YUM v4 has the following advantages over the previous YUM v3 used on RHEL 7:

Increased performance
Support for modular content
Well-designed stable API for integration with tooling

For detailed information about differences between the new YUM v4 tool and the previous version YUM v3 from RHEL 7, see Changes in DNF CLI compared to YUM.

6.1.3. How to use YUM v4

Installing software

YUM v4 is compatible with YUM v3 when using from the command line, editing or creating configuration files.

For installing software, you can use the yum command and its particular options in the same way as on RHEL 7.

See more detailed information about Installing software packages.

Availability of plug-ins

Legacy YUM v3 plug-ins are incompatible with the new version of YUM v4. Selected yum plug-ins and utilities have been ported to the new DNF back end, and can be installed under the same names as in RHEL 7. They also provide compatibility symlinks, so the binaries, configuration files and directories can be found in usual locations.

In the event that a plug-in is no longer included, or a replacement does not meet a usability need, please reach out to Red Hat Support to request a Feature Enhancement as described in How do I open and manage a support case on the Customer Portal?

For more information, see Plugin Interface.

Availability of APIs

Note that the legacy Python API provided by YUM v3 is no longer available. Users are advised to migrate their plug-ins and scripts to the new API provided by YUM v4 (DNF Python API), which is stable and fully supported. The upstream project documents the new DNF Python API - see the DNF API Reference.

The Libdnf and Hawkey APIs (both C and Python) are to be considered unstable, and will likely change during RHEL 8 life cycle.

6.1.4. Availability of YUM configuration file options

The changes in configuration file options between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 for the /etc/yum.conf and /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo files are documented in the following summary.

Table 6.1. Changes in configuration file options for the /etc/yum.conf file
RHEL 7 option	RHEL 8 status
alwaysprompt	removed
assumeno	available
assumeyes	available
autocheck_running_kernel	available
autosavets	removed
bandwidth	available
bugtracker_url	available
cachedir	available
check_config_file_age	available
clean_requirements_on_remove	available
color	available
color_list_available_downgrade	available
color_list_available_install	available
color_list_available_reinstall	available
color_list_available_running_kernel	removed
color_list_available_upgrade	available
color_list_installed_extra	available
color_list_installed_newer	available
color_list_installed_older	available
color_list_installed_reinstall	available
color_list_installed_running_kernel	removed
color_search_match	available
color_update_installed	available
color_update_local	available
color_update_remote	available
commands	removed
config_file_path	available
debuglevel	available
deltarpm	available
deltarpm_metadata_percentage	removed
deltarpm_percentage	available
depsolve_loop_limit	removed
disable_excludes	available
diskspacecheck	available
distroverpkg	removed
enable_group_conditionals	removed
errorlevel	available
exactarchlist	removed
exclude	available
exit_on_lock	available
fssnap_abort_on_errors	removed
fssnap_automatic_keep	removed
fssnap_automatic_post	removed
fssnap_automatic_pre	removed
fssnap_devices	removed
fssnap_percentage	removed
ftp_disable_epsv	removed
gpgcheck	available
group_command	removed
group_package_types	available
groupremove_leaf_only	removed
history_list_view	available
history_record	available
history_record_packages	available
http_caching	removed
include	removed
installonly_limit	available
installonlypkgs	available
installrootkeep	removed
ip_resolve	available
keepalive	removed
keepcache	available
kernelpkgnames	removed
loadts_ignoremissing	removed
loadts_ignorenewrpm	removed
loadts_ignorerpm	removed
localpkg_gpgcheck	available
logfile	removed
max_connections	removed
mddownloadpolicy	removed
mdpolicy	removed
metadata_expire	available
metadata_expire_filter	removed
minrate	available
mirrorlist_expire	removed
multilib_policy	available
obsoletes	available
override_install_langs	removed
overwrite_groups	removed
password	available
payload_gpgcheck	removed
persistdir	available
pluginconfpath	available
pluginpath	available
plugins	available
protected_multilib	removed
protected_packages	available
proxy	available
proxy_password	available
proxy_username	available
query_install_excludes	removed
recent	available
recheck_installed_requires	removed
remove_leaf_only	removed
repo_gpgcheck	available
repopkgsremove_leaf_only	removed
reposdir	available
reset_nice	available
retries	available
rpmverbosity	available
shell_exit_status	removed
showdupesfromrepos	available
skip_broken	available
skip_missing_names_on_install	removed
skip_missing_names_on_update	removed
ssl_check_cert_permissions	removed
sslcacert	available
sslclientcert	available
sslclientkey	available
sslverify	available
syslog_device	removed
syslog_facility	removed
syslog_ident	removed
throttle	available
timeout	available
tolerant	removed
tsflags	available
ui_repoid_vars	removed
upgrade_group_objects_upgrade	available
upgrade_requirements_on_install	removed
usercache	removed
username	available
usr_w_check	removed

Table 6.2. Changes in configuration file options for the /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo file
RHEL 7 option	RHEL 8 status
async	removed
bandwidth	available
baseurl	available
compare_providers_priority	removed
cost	available
deltarpm_metadata_percentage	removed
deltarpm_percentage	available
enabled	available
enablegroups	available
exclude	available
failovermethod	removed
ftp_disable_epsv	removed
gpgcakey	removed
gpgcheck	available
gpgkey	available
http_caching	removed
includepkgs	available
ip_resolve	available
keepalive	removed
metadata_expire	available
metadata_expire_filter	removed
metalink	available
mirrorlist	available
mirrorlist_expire	removed
name	available
password	available
proxy	available
proxy_password	available
proxy_username	available
repo_gpgcheck	available
repositoryid	removed
retries	available
skip_if_unavailable	available
ssl_check_cert_permissions	removed
sslcacert	available
sslclientcert	available
sslclientkey	available
sslverify	available
throttle	available
timeout	available
ui_repoid_vars	removed
username	available

6.1.5. YUM v4 features behaving differently

Some of the YUM v3 features may behave differently in YUM v4. If any such change negatively impacts your workflows, please open a case with Red Hat Support, as described in How do I open and manage a support case on the Customer Portal?

6.1.5.1. yum list presents duplicate entries

When listing packages using the yum list command, duplicate entries may be presented, one for each repository where a package of the same name and version resides.

This is intentional, and it allows the users to distinguish such packages when necessary.

For example, if package-1.2 is available in both repo1 and repo2, YUM v4 will print both instances:

[…]
package-1.2    repo1
package-1.2    repo2
[…]

By contrast, the legacy YUM v3 command filtered out such duplicates so that only one instance was shown:

[…]
package-1.2    repo1
[…]

6.1.6. Changes in the transaction history log files

The changes in the transaction history log files between RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 are documented in the following summary.

In RHEL 7, the /var/log/yum.log file stores:

Registry of installations, updates, and removals of the software packages
Transactions from yum and PackageKit

In RHEL 8, there is no direct equivalent to the /var/log/yum.log file. To display the information about the transactions, including the PackageKit and microdnf, use the yum history command.

Alternatively, you can search the /var/log/dnf.rpm.log file, but this log file does not include the transactions from PackageKit and microdnf, and it has a log rotation which provides the periodic removal of the stored information.

6.1.7. The deltarpm functionality is no longer supported

RHEL 8 no longer supports the use of delta rpms. To utilize delta rpms, a user must install the deltarpm package which is no longer available. The deltarpm replacement, drpm, does not provide the same functionality. Thus, the RHEL 8 content is not delivered in the deltarpm format. Note that this functionality will be completely removed in future RHEL releases.

6.2. Notable RPM features and changes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 is distributed with RPM 4.14. This version introduces many enhancements over RPM 4.11, which is available in RHEL 7.

Notable features include:

The debuginfo packages can be installed in parallel
Support for weak dependencies
Support for rich or boolean dependencies
Support for packaging files above 4 GB in size
Support for file triggers
New --nopretrans and --noposttrans switches to disable the execution of the %pretrans and %posttrans scriptlets respectively.
New --noplugins switch to disable loading and execution of all RPM plug-ins.
New syslog plug-in for logging any RPM activity by the System Logging protocol (syslog).
The rpmbuild command can now do all build steps from a source package directly.
This is possible if rpmbuild is used with any of the -r[abpcils] options.
Support for the reinstall mode.
This is ensured by the new --reinstall option. To reinstall a previously installed package, use the syntax below:
```
rpm {--reinstall} [install-options] PACKAGE_FILE
```
This option ensures a proper installation of the new package and removal of the old package.
Support for SSD conservation mode.
This is ensured by the new %_minimize_writes macro, which is available in the /usr/lib/rpm/macros file. The macro is by default set to 0. To minimize writing to SSD disks, set %_minimize_writes to 1.
New rpm2archive utility for converting rpm payload to tar archives

See more information about New RPM features in RHEL 8.

Notable changes include:

Stricter spec-parser
Simplified signature checking the output in non-verbose mode
Improved support for reproducible builds (builds that create an identical package):
- Setting build time
- Setting file mtime (file modification time)
- Setting buildhost
Using the -p option to query an uninstalled PACKAGE_FILE is now optional. For this use case, the rpm command now returns the same result with or without the -p option. The only use case where the -p option is necessary is to verify that the file name does not match any Provides in the rpmdb database.
Additions and deprecations in macros
- The %makeinstall macro has been deprecated. To install a program, use the %make_install macro instead.
The rpmbuild --sign command has been deprecated.
Note that using the --sign option with the rpmbuild command has been deprecated. To add a signature to an already existing package, use rpm --addsign instead.