what is epel?: Extra Packages for Enterprise 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.

As part of the Fedora packaging community, EPEL packages are 100% free/libre open source software (FLOSS).” (src)

“these packages are not officially supported by either CentOS or Red Hat, but provides many popular packages and apps” (src)

browser repo v7 here: https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/Packages/

how to add the repos:

# tested on centos7
hostnamectl
  Operating System: CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7
      Architecture: x86-64

yum -y install epel-release;
yum -y update;
# (alternatively)
# list all used/installed/setup repos
yum repolist
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: artfiles.org
 * elrepo: mirrors.coreix.net
 * epel: mirror.ehv.weppel.nl
 * extras: mirror.softaculous.com
 * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirror.ehv.weppel.nl
 * updates: centos.mirrors.as250.net
repo id                                                       repo name                                                                              status
base/7/x86_64                                                 CentOS-7 - Base                                                                        9,858+161
elrepo                                                        ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Repository - el7                                        97
epel/x86_64                                                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - x86_64                                          12,893+3
extras/7/x86_64                                               CentOS-7 - Extras                                                                            322
playonlinux                                                   PlayOnLinux Official repository                                                               53
rpmfusion-free-updates/x86_64                                 RPM Fusion for EL 7 - Free - Updates                                                         239
updates/7/x86_64                                              CentOS-7 - Updates                                                                      1,031+26

“EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is targeted at filling the gap between the complete Fedora Collection and the packages that are maintained in Enterprise Linux.

We are a community of individuals focusing on package maintenance and infrastructure to provide as many packages as possible to the consumers of Enterprise Linux.

The EPEL SIG is led by a steering committee.” (src)

Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (or EPEL) is a Fedora Special Interest Group that creates, maintains, and manages a high quality set of additional packages for Enterprise Linux, including, but not limited to, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS and Scientific Linux (SL), Oracle Linux (OL).

EPEL packages are usually based on their Fedora counterparts and will never conflict with or replace packages in the base Enterprise Linux distributions. EPEL uses much of the same infrastructure as Fedora, including buildsystem, bugzilla instance, updates manager, mirror manager and more.

Learn more about EPEL in the following pages:

? What packages and versions are available in EPEL?

You can take a look on any of the available EPEL mirrors from our mirror list

Alternately, you can browse the package set:

? END OF LIFE RELEASES

THESE ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED

? How can I use these extra packages?

EPEL has an ‘epel-release’ package that includes gpg keys for package signing and repository information. Installing this package for your Enterprise Linux version should allow you to use normal tools such as yum to install packages and their dependencies. By default the stable EPEL repo is enabled, there is also a ‘epel-testing’ repository that contains packages that are not yet deemed stable.

NOTE for RHN users
You need to also enable the ‘optional’ repository to use EPEL packages as they depend on packages in that repository. This can be done by enabling the RHEL optional subchannel for RHN-Classic. For certificate-based subscriptions see Red Hat Subscription Management Guide.
NOTE for RHEL 7 users with certificate subscriptions
EPEL 7 packages assume that the ‘optional’ repository (rhel-7-server-optional-rpms for servers) and the ‘extras’ repository (rhel-7-server-extras-rpms for servers) are enabled. You can do this with:

subscription-manager repos --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms" --enable "rhel-*-extras-rpms"
NOTE for CentOS users
You can install EPEL by running yum install epel-release. The package is included in the CentOS Extras repository, enabled by default.

If you are running an EL7 version, please visit here to get the newest ‘epel-release’ package for EL7: The newest version of ‘epel-release’ for EL7

If you are running an EL6 version, please visit here to get the newest ‘epel-release’ package for EL6: The newest version of ‘epel-release’ for EL6

EPEL for EL5 is no longer supported. If you are running EL5, please upgrade your operating system to either EL6 or EL7.

You can verify these packages and their keys from the Fedora project’s keys page: https://fedoraproject.org/keys

? Can I rely on these packages?

The EPEL project strives to provide packages with both high quality and stability. However, EPEL is maintained by a community of people who generally volunteer their time and no commercial support is provided. It is the nature of such a project that packages will come and go from the EPEL repositories over the course of a single release. In addition, it is possible that occasionally an incompatible update will be released such that administrator action is required. By policy these are announced in advance in order to give administrators time to test and provide suggestions.

It is strongly recommended that if you make use of EPEL, and especially if you rely upon it, that you subscribe to the epel-announce list. Traffic on this list is kept to a minimum needed to notify administrators of important updates.

? History and background of the project

The EPEL project was born when Fedora maintainers realized that the same infrastructure that builds and maintains packages for Fedora would be great to also maintain add on packages for Enterprise Linux. Much of the early need was driven by what Fedora infrastructure needed on the RHEL machines that built and maintained Fedora. From there things have grown to a large collection of varied packages. See our history and Philosophy page for more information.

? How can I contribute?

The EPEL SIG is always looking for interested folks to help out. We always need package maintainers, qa/testers, bug triagers, marketing and documentation writers. Please see our Joining EPEL page for more information on how to join the SIG.

? Communicating with the EPEL SIG

There are many ways to communicate with the EPEL SIG and its members:

  • The #epel[?] IRC channel on freenode offers real-time support for EPEL users and developers.
  • The epel-devel is for general developer and SIG discussion.
  • The epel-announce mailing list is a low volume mailing list for only important announcements.
  • The epel-package-announce list is a list that gets information about package updates as they happen in the stable repository.
  • The EPEL SIG meets on Wednesday every week in the #fedora-meeting[?] channel at 18:00 UTC. Please check the time on the epel calendar; sometimes it can change or a meeting can be skipped. Feel free to join us! Logs of past meetings can be viewed in meetbot.

src: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL

rpm: how to check from what repository a package was installed?

manpage of: repoquery.man.txt


repoquery -i lnav

Name        : lnav
Version     : 0.7.3
Release     : 1.el7
Architecture: x86_64
Size        : 1187399
Packager    : Fedora Project
Group       : Unspecified
URL         : https://lnav.org
Repository  : epel
Summary     : Curses-based tool for viewing and analyzing log files
Source      : lnav-0.7.3-1.el7.src.rpm
Description :
lnav is an enhanced log file viewer that takes advantage of any semantic
information that can be gleaned from the files being viewed, such as timestamps
and log levels. Using this extra semantic information, it can do things like
interleaving messages from different files, generate histograms of messages
over time, and providing hotkeys for navigating through the file. It is hoped
that these features will allow the user to quickly and efficiently zero in on
problems.

# examples
# List all packages whose name contains 'perl':
repoquery '*perl*'
# List all packages depending on openssl:
repoquery --whatrequires openssl
# List all package names and the repository they come from, nicely formatted:
repoquery -a --qf "%-20{repoid} %{name}"
# List name and summary of all available updates (if any), nicely formatted:
repoquery -a --pkgnarrow=updates --qf "%{name}:\n%{summary}\n"
# List optional packages in base group:
repoquery -g --grouppkgs=optional -l base
# List build requirements from 'anaconda' source rpm:
repoquery --requires anaconda.src
# List packages which BuildRequire gail-devel
repoquery --archlist=src --whatrequires gail-devel
# NB: This command will only work if you have repositories enabled which include srpms.

FILES
As repoquery uses YUM libraries for retrieving all the information, it relies on YUM configuration for its default values like which repositories to use.

Consult YUM documentation for details:

/etc/yum.conf
/etc/yum/repos.d/
/var/cache/yum/

SEE ALSO
yum.conf (5)
http://yum.baseurl.org/

AUTHORS: See the Authors file included with this program.
BUGS: There are of course no bugs, but should you find any you should first consult the FAQ section on http://yum.baseurl.org/wiki/Faq and if unsuccessfull ful in finding a resolution contact the mailing list: yum-devel ÄÄÄT lists DOT baseurl DOT org To file a bug use http://bugzilla.redhat.com for Fedora/RHEL/Centos related bugs and http://yum.baseurl.org/report for all other bugs.

ceditz go to: Panu Matilainen
thanks man for the hard work and dedication! 🙂

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