linux : How do I enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repo and install the packages under CentOS Linux?

How do I enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repo and install the packages under RHEL / CentOS Linux?

EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is a volunteer-based community effort from the Fedora project to create a repository of high-quality add-on packages that complement the Fedora-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and its compatible spinoffs, such as CentOS and Scientific Linux.

EPEL provide lots of packages for CentOS / RHEL, It is not part of RedHat or CentOS but is designed to work with these major distributions. Please note that EPEL only provides free and open source software unencumbered by patents or any legal issues. In short you will not find mp3, dvd and music / media player under EPEL. However, you will find many programs related to networking, monitoring, sys admin, programming and so on.

Packages are supplied in RPM format and in most cases are ready to use. Beware that some packages may break something and you should not blindly install those packages.

Simply type the following command as root user:

[root@K ~]# rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
Retrieving http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
warning: /var/tmp/rpm-xfer.jn3DIi: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 217521f6
Preparing… ########################################### [100%] 1:epel-release ########################################### [100%] [root@K ~]# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* addons: centos.aol.in
* base: centos.aol.in
* epel: ftp.kddilabs.jp
* extras: centos.aol.in
* updates: centos.aol.in
addons | 951 B 00:00
base | 2.1 kB 00:00
epel | 3.4 kB 00:00
epel/primary_db | 3.3 MB 00:13
extras | 2.1 kB 00:00
updates | 1.9 kB 00:00
repo id repo name status
addons CentOS-5 – Addons enabled: 0
base CentOS-5 – Base enabled: 3,434
epel Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 – x86_64 enabled: 5,734
extras CentOS-5 – Extras enabled: 298
updates CentOS-5 – Updates enabled: 635
repolist: 10,101
[root@K ~]#

One thought on “linux : How do I enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repo and install the packages under CentOS Linux?

  1. kartook says:

    Here you go one more


    [root@K ~]# rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/rpmforge/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

    [root@K ~]# yum repolist
    Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
    Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
    * addons: centos.aol.in
    * base: centos.aol.in
    * epel: http://ftp.kddilabs.jp
    * extras: centos.aol.in
    * rpmforge: ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de
    * updates: centos.aol.in
    repo id repo name status
    addons CentOS-5 – Addons enabled: 0
    base CentOS-5 – Base enabled: 3,434
    epel Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 – x86_64 enabled: 5,734
    extras CentOS-5 – Extras enabled: 298
    rpmforge Red Hat Enterprise 5 – RPMforge.net – dag enabled: 10,246
    updates CentOS-5 – Updates enabled: 635
    repolist: 20,347

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