Yum (Yellowdog Updater Modified) is a utility for finding, installing, updating and removing software on Linux. It runs on rpm-compatible Linux distributions, e.g. RedHat, Fedora, SUSE, CentOS, Mandriva.
Get the Yum Package Name by Just Using the Software’s Name
When you want to install some software, sometimes you’re lucky and can use the software’s name. For example, installing the GNU screen terminal utility is as simple as:
sudo yum install screen
Guessing the package name doesn’t always work. For example, try installing vim (an improved vi text editor with syntax highlighting) with just the package name vim:
[root@sayonara ~]# yum install vim Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de * base: centos.aol.com * updates: mirror.nexcess.net * addons: centos.aol.com * extras: centos.mirror.seiri.com Setting up Install Process Parsing package install arguments No package vim available. Nothing to do
In this case yum reports: No package vim available.
Similarly, trying to install the MySQL database with just mysql as the package name, will probably result in the same error No package mysql available:
sudo yum install mysql
Are vim and MySQL really not available for installation with yum?
Find a Yum Package Using Yum Search
The following yum command searches for different pacakages mentioning vim:
[root@sayonara ~]# yum search vim Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de ================================================================================= Matched: vim ================================================================================= vim-X11.i386 : The VIM version of the vi editor for the X Window System. vim-common.i386 : The common files needed by any version of the VIM editor. vim-enhanced.i386 : A version of the VIM editor which includes recent enhancements. vim-minimal.i386 : A minimal version of the VIM editor.
Then just pick the package you want to install, for example:
sudo yum install vim-minimal.i386
Another example is looking for the package to install MySQL:
[root@sayonara ~]# yum search mysql Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de * base: mirror.rackspace.com * updates: mirror.cs.vt.edu * addons: yum.singlehop.com * extras: mirror.cs.vt.edu =================================================================== Matched: mysql ==================================================================== mod_auth_mysql.i386 : Basic authentication for the Apache web server using a MySQL database. qt-MySQL.i386 : MySQL drivers for Qt's SQL classes. MySQL-python.i386 : An interface to MySQL aimsniff.i386 : Monitor and archive AOL Instant Messenger messages apr-util-mysql.i386 : APR utility library MySQL DBD driver bytefx-data-mysql.i386 : Database connectivity for Mono cacti.noarch : Complete network graphing solution designed on top of RRDTool cacti-docs.noarch : Documentation for the cacti network graphing solution freeradius-mysql.i386 : MySQL bindings for freeradius freeradius2-mysql.i386 : MySQL support for freeradius gtksql.i386 : Graphical database query tool for MySQL and PostgreSQL krecipes.i386 : Recipe manager libdbi-dbd-mysql.i386 : MySQL plugin for libdbi lighttpd-mod_mysql_vhost.i386 : Virtual host module for lighttpd that uses a MySQL database motion.i386 : Video-surveilance system mtop.noarch : Tool to monitor a MySQL database mysql.i386 : MySQL client programs and shared libraries. mysql-bench.i386 : MySQL benchmark scripts and data mysql-connector-odbc.i386 : ODBC driver for MySQL mysql-devel.i386 : Files for development of MySQL applications mysql-server.i386 : The MySQL server and related files. mysql-test.i386 : The test suite distributed with MySQL mytop.noarch : Top clone for MySQL nagios-plugins.i386 : Host/service/network monitoring program plugins for Nagios ndoutils.i386 : Nagios plugin to store Nagios data in a relational database pdns-backend-mysql.i386 : MySQL backend for pdns perl-Acme-BeyondPerl-ToSQL.noarch : Perl module to have RDBMS calculate instead of Perl perl-Class-DBI-mysql.noarch : Perl module that extends Class::DBI for MySQL perl-DBD-MySQL.i386 : A MySQL interface for perl perl-DBD-SQLite.i386 : Small fast embedded SQL database engine perl-DBD-mysql.i386 : Perl module that implements a MySQL driver for DBI perl-DBIx-TableHash.noarch : Tie a hash to a mysql table + SQL utils perl-DBIx-TextIndex.i386 : full-text searching in SQL databases perl-DNS-BL.noarch : Manage DNS black lists perl-DateTime-Format-MySQL.noarch : Perl module to parse and format MySQL dates and times perl-MySQL-Config.noarch : Perl module to parse and utilize MySQL's /etc/my.cnf and ~/.my.cnf files perl-Qmail-Mysql.noarch : Perl module for mysql database used by qmail-mysql perl-Time-Piece-MySQL.noarch : Perl module adds MySQL-specific methods to Time::Piece php-adodb.noarch : Portable Database Library for PHP php-mysql.i386 : A module for PHP applications that use MySQL databases. php-pdo.i386 : A database access abstraction module for PHP applications php-pear-MDB2-Driver-mysql.noarch : MySQL MDB2 driver php-pecl-session_mysql.i386 : PECL package to save sessions to a MySQL database phpmyadmin.noarch : Web application to manage MySQL proftpd-mysql.i386 : Module to add MySQL support to the ProFTPD FTP server pure-ftpd.i386 : Lightweight, fast and secure FTP server python-sqlalchemy.noarch : SQL toolkit and object relational mapper for Python qt4-mysql.i386 : MySQL drivers for Qt's SQL classes rsyslog.i386 : Enhanced system logging and kernel message trapping daemons rsyslog-mysql.i386 : MySQL support for rsyslog sphinx.i386 : Free open-source SQL full-text search engine synbak.noarch : Universal backup system sysbench.i386 : System performance benchmark unixODBC.i386 : A complete ODBC driver manager for Linux.
Looking over the available packages, the package for installing the MySQL database would be mysql-server.i386.
More information is available at the yum homepage.