Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

Summary 95CAUTIONAlthough the -y option to yum can be used with yum remove , it is notrecommended. As shown in Listing 3.2, removing one package might mean needing toremove more packages that depend on it. If you use the -y option to answer yes to allquestions, you are agreeing to remove all the packages that depend on the one youwant to remove without knowing what those packages are. You might depend on oneof those packages. Read the list of additional packages to remove carefully beforeanswering yes.The Package Manager graphical program as previously described in the “Installing Software”section can also be used to remove one or more packages and their dependencies. Start it aspreviously described and use the Search or List tabs to find the packages to delete. Insteadof clicking the check box beside the package to install it, click the check box beside thepackages to remove the check mark. Click Apply to start the package removal process.3Confirm the list of packages to remove by clicking Continue. If additional packages needto be deleted as software dependencies, they are listed next. Click Continue to agree totheir removal as well. When the package removal is complete, a message is displayed.Performing More ActionsThe command-line version of YUM can perform additional actions useful when managingRPM on a system. Read the yum man page invoked with the man yum command for acomplete list. The following are a few highlights:yum deplist yum list availableyum list updatesThe yum deplist command displays the software dependencies for thepackage listed. The yum list available outputs a list of packages that are available forinstallation on the system. The yum list updates shows all the software updates availablefor but not yet installed on the system.SummarySoftware maintenance is crucial to system administration, but it doesn’t have to be laborintensive or tedious. Every Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription includes the ability tobe notified of and retrieve updates from Red Hat Network, so why not take advantage ofits many features including email notifications of newly released software updates and theability to schedule package updates, installations, and removals? These actions can beperformed via the RHN website or YUM. YUM can be used from the command line orfrom one of two graphical programs. The RHN website offers the flexibility of schedulingactions. The yum command-line utility allows administrators to manage software on aminimally installed system or using scripts that require non-interactive commands. Thegraphical YUM programs provide a customized list of software updates specific to yoursystem for quick and easy maintenance.