Appendix B. Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages

A component such as a library or server often has multiple packages associated with it. You do not have to install them all. You can install only the ones you need.

The primary package typically has the simplest name, without additional qualifiers. This package provides all the required interfaces for using the component at program run time.

Packages with names ending in -devel contain headers for C and C++ libraries. These are required at compile time to build programs that depend on this package.

Packages with names ending in -docs contain documentation and example programs for the component.

For more information about using RPM packages, see one of the following resources:

To search for packages, use the yum search command. The search results include package names, which you can use as the value for <package> in the other commands listed in this section.

yum search <keyword>...

$ yum search <keyword>...

To install packages, use the yum install command.

sudo yum install <package>...

$ sudo yum install <package>...

To list the packages installed in your system, use the rpm -qa command.

rpm -qa

$ rpm -qa

To get information about a particular package, use the rpm -qi command.

rpm -qi <package>

$ rpm -qi <package>

To list all the files associated with a package, use the rpm -ql command.

rpm -ql <package>

$ rpm -ql <package>