Working with Third Party Repositories on CentOS 6.4

I have been playing around with CentOS a bit. It has older versions of all software I use or is missing some other software I need. The first problem (older version of software) is remedied by using additional repositories: Software Collections, IUS. The second problem, missing software, is also remedied by additional repositories: EPEL, RepoForge (formerly RPMForge).

You may want to list your current repositories:

yum repolist

When adding a repository, find the rpm that’ll add/enable the repository. You’ll usually find these on the project’s website. For example, RepoForge, IUS, EPEL have instructions and links on where to find the rpm.

As an example, we’ll add the RepoForge repository.

rpm -ivh 'http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm'

You could also use yum to install the rpm:

yum localinstall http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Now when you list the repos on your machine, you’ll see something like:

yum repolist

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, presto, ps
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos-mirror.jchost.net
 * epel: mirror.pnl.gov
 * extras: mirror.ancl.hawaii.edu
 * rpmforge: apt.sw.be
 * updates: ftp.usf.edu
repo id        repo name                                            status
base           CentOS-6 - Base                                      6,381
extras         CentOS-6 - Extras                                       13
rpmforge       RHEL 6 - RPMforge.net - dag                          4,597
updates        CentOS-6 - Updates                                   1,123
repolist: 21,606

To view the packages available from a repository, disable (temporarily) all repos except the one you’re interested in.

yum --disablerepo='*' --enablerepo='rpmforge' list available

To remove a third party repository, first find the rpm and then remove it.

rpm -qa rpmforge*

rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64

Or you can use yum:

yum list rpmforge*

If you’re curious to know what the removal will look like, you can test it first.

rpm -e --test -vv rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64

D: loading keyring from pubkeys in /var/lib/rpm/pubkeys/*.key
D: couldn't find any keys in /var/lib/rpm/pubkeys/*.key
D: loading keyring from rpmdb
D: opening  db environment /var/lib/rpm cdb:mpool:joinenv
D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Packages rdonly mode=0x0
D: locked   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Name rdonly mode=0x0
D:  read h#     200 Header sanity check: OK
D: added key gpg-pubkey-c105b9de-4e0fd3a3 to keyring
D:  read h#     261 Header sanity check: OK
D: added key gpg-pubkey-6b8d79e6-3f49313d to keyring
D: Using legacy gpg-pubkey(s) from rpmdb
D:  read h#     265 Header V3 DSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 6b8d79e6: OK
D: ========== --- rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf x86_64/linux 0x0
D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Requirename rdonly mode=0x0
D: ========== recording tsort relations
D: ========== tsorting packages (order, #predecessors, #succesors, tree, depth)
D:     0    0    0    0    1   -rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64
D: erasing packages
D: sanity checking 1 elements
D: computing 26 file fingerprints
D: computing file dispositions
D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Basenames rdonly mode=0x0
D: 0x0000fd00     4096    121121780     32464498 /
D: ========== +++ rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf x86_64-linux 0x0
D:     erase: rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf has 26 files, test = 1
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Requirename
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Basenames
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Name
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: closed   db environment /var/lib/rpm

Now you can remove the repo:

rpm -e rpmforge-release-0.5.3-1.el6.rf.x86_64

Or you can use yum:

yum erase rpmforge-release

Additional Resources:
RedHat software collections and CentOS