How to use yum to list All versions of Package in Linux

In this post, we will show how to make yum list all available versions of a specified package and how to instruct it to install the particular one.

Show All Versions of Package with yum

Run the following command to show all versions of a package, available in enabled repositories:

$yum list <package_name> --showduplicates

Example:

# yum list glibc-locale-source --showduplicates

This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:31:11 ago on Wed 20 Jul 2022 02:01:41 AM GMT.
Installed Packages
glibc-locale-source.x86_64 2.28-151.el8 @wd_rpm
Available Packages
glibc-locale-source.x86_64 2.28-151.el8 wd_rpm
glibc-locale-source.x86_64 2.28-164.el8_5.3 wd_rpm

From the output, we can see that there are 3 packages in total. One package is installed. Two packages are available to install from remote repository.

See also: Mastering the Linux Command Line — Your Complete Free Training Guide

Installed Packages: This section lists the packages that are currently installed on the system. In this case, it shows that the glibc-locale-source package with version 2.28-151.el8 is installed (@wd_rpm indicates it was installed from wd_rpm package repository).

Available Packages: This section lists the available packages that can be installed from the configured repositories. Here, it shows that there are two available versions of glibc-locale-source: version 2.28-151.el8 and version 2.28-164.el8_5.3. The wd_rpm tag indicates that these versions are available from remote package repository.

Install Specific Version Of Package with yum in Linux

To install a specific version of a package, run: $ sudo yum install <package_name>–<version_info>

yum install glibc-locale-source-2.28-151.el8

Force Yum To Downgrade Package

If we already have the latest version of a package installed, but we need to downgrade it to the particular version that is older, execute:

$ sudo yum downgrade <package_name>-<version_info>

understanding RPM file name

Name : kernel
Version : 4.18.0
Release : 425.3.1.el8
Architecture : x86_64
Size : 8.8 M

Install, uninstall & upgrade packages with yum

Here are the Yum commands for installing, removing and updating packages.

Command	Functionality	Example command
install	Install a package from yum repository	yum install nginx
remove	Remove an installed package and its dependencies	yum remove nginx
erase	Similar to remove command	yum erase nginx
update	Update or or more packages on the system	yum update or sudo yum update gcc
update-to	Update or or more packages to a specific version	yum update-to ngingx-2.7-1.1
upgrade	update all packages to the latest version	yum upgrade
reinstall	Reinstall current version of a specific package	yum reinstall httpd
autoremove	Remove a package and all other unnecessary packages	yum autoremove httpd
downgrade	Downgrade a specific package to an earlier version	yum downgrade nginx
swap	Remove package and install another	yum swap nginx httpd
localinstall	Install a package from a local repository	yum localinstall package.rpm
groupinstall	Install packages from a specific group	yum groupinstall “group name”

Base Package Commands in yum

These commands will help you explore installed packages or search for packages from repositories.

Command	Functionality	Example
list	List package names from repositories	sudo yum list all
info	Show information about a specific package	sudo yum info nginx
search	Search for a package name and description	sudo yum search apache
updateinfo	Show information about available package updates	sudo yum updateinfo baseos
check-update	Show available package updates from enabled repositories	sudo yum check-update
grouplist	Show names and available package groups	sudo yum grouplist
deplist	Show dependencies for a specific package	sudo yum deplist vsftpd
provides	Locate the package that provides a specific file	sudo yum provides “*/bin/zsh”
groupinfo	Show description and contents of a package group	sudo yum groupinfo “group name”
help	Display yum help information or help on sub command	sudo yum help or sudo yum help list

Managing Yum Repos

For adding and managing additional repositories.

Command	Functionality	Example
repolist	List the available software repositories	sudo yum repolist
repo-pkgs	Use packages in a specific repository	sudo yum repo-pkgs baseos list
repoinfo	Show information about enabled repositories	sudo yum repoinfo baseos
makecache	Download repository data to cache	sudo yum makecache

Troubleshooting Yum

When things go wrong with Yum, use these commands.

Command	Functionality	Example
clean	Clean out all cached package data/clean all packages metadata	sudo yum clean packages or sudo yum clean all
check	Check local RPM db for problems	sudo yum check
history	View and use yum transactions	sudo yum history list or sudo yum history undo or sudo yum history redo
fssnapshot	Show LVM snapshots	sudo yum fs filters

Helpful Options

Common options to be used with Yum commands:

Command Option	Functionality	Example
-y	Assume yes if prompted	sudo yum -y install nginx
–assumeno	Assume no if prompted	sudo yum –assumeno install nginx
-v	Verbose	sudo yum -v install
-q	Quiet	sudo yum -q install
–noplugins	Do not load any YUM plugins	sudo yum –noplugins install
–disableplugin=	Deactivate a specific plugin	sudo yum –disableplugin=ps
–enableplugin=	Activate a specific plugin	sudo yum –enableplugin=ps
–changelogs	Show changelog info of a package	sudo yum –changelogs install httpd
—filter=??	Filter output for specific vendors, groups, architectures, and others.	sudo yum list available –filter=server
–enablerepo=	Enable a deactivated repo	sudo yum install nginx –enablerepo=??
–disablerepo=	Disable an activated repo	sudo yum install nginx –deactivaterepo=??
–downloadonly	Download package and no install	sudo yum install –downloadonly httpd

yum Extra Commands

Some additional commands that you may need to use once a while:

Commands	Functionality
reposync	Synchronize yum repo to local directory
show-installed	Show installed packages
verifytree	Check local repo for consistency
yumdb	Change yum database
yumdownloader	Download a package from repo to cwd
repouery	Query remote repo and local db
repoclosure	Get unmet dependency list
needs-restarting	Show processes that have been updated and require restart