Environment
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Issue
- How do I use yum to download a package without installing it?
Resolution
There are two ways to download a package without installing it.
One is using the "downloadonly" plugin for yum, the other is using "yumdownloader" utility.
Downloadonly plugin for yum
-
Install the package including "downloadonly" plugin
(RHEL5) # yum install yum-downloadonly (RHEL6) # yum install yum-plugin-downloadonly -
Run yum command with "--downloadonly" option as follows
# yum install --downloadonly --downloaddir=<directory> <package> -
Confirm the RPM files are available in the specified download directory.
Note:
- Before using the plugin, check /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/downloadonly.conf to confirm that this plugin is "enabled=1"
- This is applicable for "yum install/yum update" and not for "yum groupinstall". Use "yum groupinfo" to identify packages within a specific group.
- If only the package name is specified, the latest available package is downloaded (such as sshd). Otherwise, you can specify the full package name and version (such as httpd-2.2.3-22.el5).
- If you do not use the --downloaddir option, files are saved by default in /var/cache/yum/ in rhel-{arch}-channel/packages
- If desired, you can download multiple packages on the same command.
- You still need to re-download the repodata if the repodata expires before you re-use the cache. By default it takes two hours to expire.
Yumdownloader
If downloading a installed package, "yumdownloader" is useful.
- Install the yum-utils package:
# yum install yum-utils
- Run the command followed by the desired package:
# yumdownloader <package>
Note:
- The package is saved in the current working directly by default; use the --destdir option to specify an alternate location.
# yumdownloader keepalived --destdir /usr/local/src
- Be sure to add --resolve if you need to download dependencies.
# yumdownloader nginx --destdir /usr/local/src/nginx_rpm/ --resolve