Posted by In this article, you will learn how to install and enable the EPEL repository on CentOS 8.x, CentOS 7.x and CentOS 6.x releases to install additional standard open-source software packages by using YUM and DNF package manager.
What is EPEL
EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is an open-source and free community-based repository project from the Fedora team which provides 100% high-quality add-on software packages for Linux distribution including RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CentOS, and Scientific Linux.
EPEL project is not a part of RHEL/CentOS but it is designed for major Linux distributions by providing lots of open source packages like networking tools, sysadmin tools, programming, monitoring, and so on. Most of the EPEL packages are maintained by the Fedora repo.
Why Do We Use the EPEL Repository?
- Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum and DNF.
- Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
- It does not provide any core duplicate packages and has no compatibility issues.
- All EPEL packages are maintained by the Fedora repo.
How to Install EPEL Repository on CentOS Server
To install the EPEL repository on any CentOS releases, log in to your CentOS server instance as a root user and run the commands as explained below as per your release version.
How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 8.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # yum install epel-release
How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 7.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # yum install epel-release
How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 6.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # yum install epel-release
How Do I Verify EPEL Repo?
Now update the software packages and verify the installation of the EPEL repository using the following commands.
# yum update # rpm -qa | grep epel
You can also verify that the EPEL repository is enabled on the system by listing all active repositories using the following command.
# yum repolist
To list the software packages that constitute the EPEL repository, run the command.
# dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available OR # yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available
Alternatively, you can use the following grep command to search for individual package names as shown.
# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available | grep 'htop' OR # dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available | grep 'monitorix'
How Do I Use EPEL Repo to Install Packages?
Once the EPEL repository has been successfully installed, a package can be installed using the command.
# dnf --enablerepo="epel" install <package_name> OR # yum --enablerepo="epel" install <package_name>
For example, to search and install a package called htop – an interactive Linux process-viewer, run the following command.
# yum --enablerepo=epel info htop
Now, to install the Htop package, the command will be.
# yum --enablerepo=epel install htop
Note: The EPEL configuration file is located under /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo.
