Package Management (yum vs apt):

Redhat and Ubuntu OS families have different package management tools like yum and apt. As an Administrator, we need to have the commands ready for any package mgmt related work for both the OS families. We have outlined few commands which comes handy in such scenarios.

General Packaging System Information

Redhat Family(yum) Ubuntu(apt)
Package file extension *.rpm *.deb
Repository location configuration /etc/yum.conf OR /etc/yum.repos.d/ /etc/apt/sources.list


Adding, Removing and Upgrading Package

Task Redhat Family(yum) Ubuntu(apt)
Refresh list of available packages Yum refreshes each time it's used apt-get update
Install a package from a repository yum install package_name apt-get install package_name
Install a package file yum install package.rpm OR rpm -i package.rpm dpkg --install package.deb
Remove a package rpm -e package_name apt-get remove package_name
Remove a package with configuration files yum remove package_name apt-get purge package_name
Check for package upgrades yum check-update apt-get -s upgrade OR apt-get -s dist-upgrade
Upgrade packages yum update OR rpm -Uvh [args] apt-get upgrade
Upgrade the entire system yum upgrade apt-get dist-upgrade


Package Information

Task Redhat Family(yum) Ubuntu(apt)
Get information about an available package yum search package_name apt-cache search package_name
Show available packages yum list available apt-cache dumpavail
List all installed packages yum list installed OR rpm -qa dpkg --list
Get information about a package yum info package_name apt-cache show package_name
Get information about an installed package rpm -qi package_name dpkg --status package_name
List files in an installed package rpm -ql package_name dpkg --listfiles package_name
List configuration files in an installed package rpm -qc package_name dpkg-query --show -f '${Conffiles}\n' package_name
Show the packages a given package depends on rpm -qR package_name apt-cache depends
Show other packages that depend on a given package (reverse dependency) rpm -q --whatrequires [args] apt-cache rdepends


Misc. Packaging System Tools

Task Redhat Family(yum) Ubuntu(apt)
Show stats about the package cache - apt-cache stats
Verify all installed packages rpm -Va debsums
Remove packages from the local cache directory yum clean package apt-get clean
Remove only obsolete packages from the local cache directory - apt-get autoclean
Remove header files from the local cache directory (forcing a new download of same on next use) yum clean headers apt-file purge


Package File Information

Task Redhat Family(yum) Ubuntu(apt)
Get information about a package file rpm -qpi package.rpm dpkg --info package.deb
List files in a package file rpm -qpl package.rpm dpkg --contents package.deb
List documentation files in a package file rpm -qpd package.rpm -
List configuration files in a package file rpm -qpc package.rpm -
Extract files in a package rpm2cpio package.rpm cpio -vid
Find package that installed a file rpm -qf filename dpkg --search filename
Find package that provides a particular file yum provides filename apt-file search filename


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