1.4. Installing a Software Collection

To ensure that a Software Collection is on your system, install the so-called metapackage of the Software Collection. Thanks to Software Collections being fully compatible with the RPM Package Manager, you can use conventional tools like Yum or PackageKit for this task.

For example, to install a Software Collection with the metapackage named software_collection_1, run the following command:

# yum install software_collection_1

This command will automatically install all the packages in the Software Collection that are essential for the user to perform most common tasks with the Software Collection.

Software Collections allow you to only install a subset of packages you intend to use. For example, to use the Ruby interpreter from the ruby193 Software Collection, you only need to install a package ruby193-ruby from that Software Collection.

If you install an application that depends on a Software Collection, that Software Collection will be installed along with the rest of the application's dependencies.

For detailed information on Software Collection metapackages, see Section 2.7.1, “Metapackage”.

For detailed information on Yum and PackageKit usage, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide, or the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Deployment Guide.