How to Exclude Specific Packages from Yum Update

Jamie Arthur 2018-03-08 Channel: Linux

Abstract: 6 cloud-init.x86_64 0.7.9-9.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases10 glibc.x86_64 2.17-196.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases

Linux . How-to-Exclude-Specific-Packages-from-Yum-Update

Linux . How-to-Exclude-Specific-Package-from-apt-get-Upgrade

Linux . How-to-Exclude-Specific-Package-from-apt-Upgrade

In this article, we'll show you how to exclude specific packages from updating using Yum package manager. Periodically, you may want to update your CentOS or RHEL system but leave out certain packages especially if the updates are likely to interfere with certain major applications in the System.

Refer Also : How to Exclude Specific Package from apt-get Upgrade

Exclude Specific packages from updating

We begin by first checking which packages are due for an upgrade using the Yum package manager on Centos 7, as shown below.

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yum list updates | cat -n

Sample Output

 1 Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
 2 Updated Packages
 3 bind-libs-lite.x86_64 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 4 bind-license.noarch 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 5 binutils.x86_64 2.25.1-32.base.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 6 cloud-init.x86_64 0.7.9-9.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 7 dhclient.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 8 dhcp-common.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 9 dhcp-libs.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 10 glibc.x86_64 2.17-196.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 11 glibc-common.x86_64 2.17-196.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 12 initscripts.x86_64 9.49.39-1.el7_4.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 13 iwl7265-firmware.noarch 22.0.7.0-58.el7_4 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 14 kernel.x86_64 3.10.0-693.17.1.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 15 kernel-tools.x86_64 3.10.0-693.17.1.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
 16 kernel-tools-libs.x86_64 3.10.0-693.17.1.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases

To exclude a specific package from getting updated, the syntax would be as follows

yum --exclude=packagename\* update

For example, If you want to exclude package glibc which is 10th on our list, run

# yum --exclude=glibc\* update

Sample Output

Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package bind-libs-lite.x86_64 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.1 will be updated
---> Package bind-libs-lite.x86_64 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.2 will be an update
---> Package bind-license.noarch 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.1 will be updated
---> Package bind-license.noarch 32:9.9.4-51.el7_4.2 will be an update
---> Package binutils.x86_64 0:2.25.1-32.base.el7_4.1 will be updated
---> Package binutils.x86_64 0:2.25.1-32.base.el7_4.2 will be an update
---> Package cloud-init.x86_64 0:0.7.9-9.el7_4.1 will be updated
---> Package cloud-init.x86_64 0:0.7.9-9.el7_4.2 will be an update
---> Package dhclient.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7 will be updated
---> Package dhclient.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 will be an update
---> Package dhcp-common.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7 will be updated
---> Package dhcp-common.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 will be an update
---> Package dhcp-libs.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7 will be updated
---> Package dhcp-libs.x86_64 12:4.2.5-58.el7_4.1 will be an update
---> Package initscripts.x86_64 0:9.49.39-1.el7 will be updated
---> Package initscripts.x86_64 0:9.49.39-1.el7_4.1 will be an update

As you may have noted, package glibc is not on our list because we excluded it in our command.

To exclude a list of packages run

# yum --exclude=glibc\* --exclude=cloud-init\* update

Alternatively, you can use the command below to achieve the same purpose.

yum -x 'packagename*' update

To exclude more than one package using the same command, run the command below

yum -x 'packageName1*' -x 'packageName2*' update

Permanently disable specific packages from updating in Yum

To disable specific packages from getting updates open the following config file with a text editor of your choice

/etc/yum.conf

At the end of the config file, append the following

exclude=samba httpd mariadb php

The above excludes samba, httpd , MariaDB, PHP packages from updating.

To exclude 32 bit packages

exclude=*.i?86 *.i686

Now, if you try to update each of the individual packages, you'll get a prompt that "No packages marked for update"

Sample Output

[root@ip-172-31-16-136 ec2-user]# yum update httpd
Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
rhui-REGION-client-config-server-7                                                                                                               | 2.9 kB  00:00:00
rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases                                                                                                                 | 3.5 kB  00:00:00
rhui-REGION-rhel-server-rh-common                                                                                                                | 3.8 kB  00:00:00
No packages marked for update

[root@ip-172-31-16-136 ec2-user]# yum update samba
Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
No packages marked for update

[root@ip-172-31-16-136 ec2-user]# yum update mariadb
Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
No packages marked for update

[root@ip-172-31-16-136 ec2-user]# yum update php
Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos
No packages marked for update

Exclude a repository from updating

Firstly, you may want to have a peek at the available repositories in your system. to achieve this, run the command below

yum repolist

Output

repo id                                       repo name                                                                          status
Webmin                                        Webmin Distribution Neutral                                                           111
base/7/x86_64                                 CentOS-7 - Base                                                                     9,591
epel/x86_64                                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - x86_64                                     12,382
extras/7/x86_64                               CentOS-7 - Extras                                                                     392
filebeat/x86_64                               Filebeat for ELK clients                                                               44
google-chrome                                 google-chrome                                                                           3
ius/x86_64                                    IUS Community Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - x86_64                                468
kibana-5.x                                    Kibana repository for 5.x packages                                                    338
logstash-5.x                                  Elastic repository for 5.x packages                                                   338
nux-dextop/x86_64                             Nux.Ro RPMs for general desktop use                                                 2,575
updates/7/x86_64                              CentOS-7 - Updates                                                                  1,962
repolist: 28,204

To disable a repo from updating, we use the '--disablerepo=reponame' option alongside the yum update command.

yum --disablerepo=reponame update

Alternatively, the 'update' command can precede the 'disablerepo=reponame'option as shown

yum update -disablerepo=reponame

In the above example, If I want to disable kibana-5.x from updating, I'll run

yum --disablerepo=kibana-5.x update

To exclude multiple repositories in one line, separate the repositories using a comma as shown below

yum update--disablerepo=kibana-5.x,logstash-5.x

What this does is that it will update the rest of the repos but leave out kibana-5.x

Excluding a repository from updating using enabled parameters

Instead of disabling the repo from updating in the yum update command, you can set the 'enabled' parameter to 0 in the repository configuration file.
The repo configuration file is located in /etc/yum.repos.d as shown

[root@epicenter ~]# ls -l /etc/yum.repos.d/
total 84
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1664 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-Base.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1309 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-CR.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  649 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-Debuginfo.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  314 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-fasttrack.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  630 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-Media.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1331 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-Sources.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 3830 Aug 30  2017 CentOS-Vault.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  390 Jan 28 20:05 decathorpe-elementary-stable-fedora-25.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  391 Jan 28 21:03 decathorpe-elementary-stable.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  951 Oct  2 20:44 epel.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1050 Oct  2 20:44 epel-testing.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  178 Oct  4 13:01 filebeat.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  173 Jan 10 12:54 google-chrome.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1150 Feb 23  2017 ius-archive.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1131 Feb 23  2017 ius-dev.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1073 Feb 23  2017 ius.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1150 Feb 23  2017 ius-testing.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  212 Oct  3 12:05 kibana.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  216 Oct  3 14:01 logstash.repo
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  477 Jul 31  2014 nux-dextop.repo
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  163 Oct  3 11:23 webmin.repo

To exclude the kibana-5.x repository, open the configuration file using a text editor and set the 'enabled' option to 0 as shown below.

vim /etc/yum.repos.d/kibana.repo

If you run yum repolist, the repository will not show up in the results as shown

repo id                                       repo name                                                                          status
Webmin                                        Webmin Distribution Neutral                                                           111
base/7/x86_64                                 CentOS-7 - Base                                                                     9,591
epel/x86_64                                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - x86_64                                     12,382
extras/7/x86_64                               CentOS-7 - Extras                                                                     392
filebeat/x86_64                               Filebeat for ELK clients                                                               44
google-chrome                                 google-chrome                                                                           3
ius/x86_64                                    IUS Community Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - x86_64                                468
logstash-5.x                                  Elastic repository for 5.x packages                                                   338
nux-dextop/x86_64                             Nux.Ro RPMs for general desktop use                                                 2,575
updates/7/x86_64                              CentOS-7 - Updates                                                                  1,962
repolist: 27,866

This implies that any packages from the kibana repo will not be updated when the yum update command is run.

Thank you for taking your time on this tutorial. We hope that we've addressed the issue on how you can disable specific packages in Yum. Free to give it a try and get back to us with your feedback.