Linux

dnf & yum — Package Management on Fedora and RHEL

Use dnf and yum to install, update, and remove packages on Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, and Rocky Linux.

March 18, 20255 min read

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dnf — Modern Fedora Package Manager

dnf (Dandified YUM) replaced yum in Fedora 22+ and RHEL 8+. It's faster with better dependency resolution.

sudo dnf install nginx           # Install
sudo dnf remove nginx            # Remove
sudo dnf update                  # Update all packages
sudo dnf search "web server"     # Search packages
dnf info nginx                   # Package info
dnf list installed               # List installed packages
sudo dnf autoremove              # Remove unused dependencies
sudo dnf clean all               # Clean cache

yum — Legacy (RHEL 7 / CentOS 7)

sudo yum install nginx           # Same basic syntax as dnf
sudo yum remove nginx
sudo yum update
yum search "web server"
yum info nginx
sudo yum clean all

dnf replaced yum in modern Red Hat-based systems. If both are available, prefer dnf — it's faster and more reliable.

rpm — Low-level (Manual .rpm Files)

sudo rpm -i package.rpm          # Install a .rpm file
rpm -qa                          # List all installed packages
rpm -ql nginx                    # Files installed by package
rpm -qf /usr/bin/vim             # Which package owns this file?

Quick Check

Which command updates ALL packages on a Fedora system?

Exercise

On a Fedora system, search for the htop package and install it using dnf.