The global definitions for yum are located under the [main] section heading of the yum configuration file. The following table lists the important directives.

See the yum.conf(5) manual page for more information.

The following listing shows an example [main] section from the yum configuration file.

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgkey=file://media/RPM-GPG-KEY
gpgcheck=1
pligins=1
installonly_limit=3

It is possible to define repositories below the [main] section in /etc/yum.conf or in separate repository configuration files. By default, yum expects any repository configuration files to be located in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory unless you use the reposdir directive to define alternate directories.

If your organization uses a proxy server as an intermediary for Internet access, specify the proxy setting in /etc/yum.conf as shown in the following example.

proxy=http://proxysvr.example.com:3128

If the proxy server requires authentication, additionally specify the proxy_username, and proxy_password settings.

proxy=http://proxysvr.example.com:3128
proxy_username=yumacc
proxy_password=clydenw 

If you use the yum plugin (yum-rhn-plugin) to access the ULN, specify the enableProxy and httpProxy settings in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date as shown in this example.

enableProxy=1
httpProxy=http://proxysvr.example.com:3128

If the proxy server requires authentication, additionally specify the enableProxyAuth, proxyUser, and proxyPassword settings.

enableProxy=1
httpProxy=http://proxysvr.example.com:3128
enableProxyAuth=1
proxyUser=yumacc
proxyPassword=clydenw

The yum configuration file or yum repository configuration files can contain one or more sections that define repositories.

The following table lists the basic directives for a repository.

Any other directive that appears in this section overrides the corresponding global definition in [main] section of the yum configuration file. See the yum.conf(5) manual page for more information.

The following listing shows an example repository section from a configuration file.

[ol6_u2_base]
name=Oracle Linux 6 U2 - $basearch - base 
baseurl=https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL6/2/base/$basearch 
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY 
gpgcheck=1 
enabled=1

In this example, the values of gpgkey and gpgcheck override any global setting. yum substitutes the name of the current system's architecture for the variable $basearch.

yum automatically searches the /etc/yum.repos.d directory for files with the suffix .repo and appends these to the configuration when it is processing. Use this directory to define repository files for repositories that you want to make available.

The Oracle Linux yum server provides a direct mapping of all of the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) channels that are available to the public without any specific support agreement. The repository labels used for each repository on the Oracle Linux yum server map directly onto the channel names on ULN. See Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7 at https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/uln-user/ol_channels_uln.html for more information about the channel names and common suffixes used for channels and repositories.

Prior to January 2019, Oracle shipped a single yum repository configuration file for each Oracle Linux release. This configuration file is copied into /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ol7.repo at installation, but can also be downloaded from the Oracle Linux yum server directly to obtain updates.

The original configuration file is deprecated in favor of modular repository files that are managed and updated automatically via yum in the form of RPM packages that are more targeted in scope. For example, core repository configuration files required for Oracle Linux 7 are available in the oraclelinux-release-el7 package. This package includes all of the repository configuration required to install base packages for the release, including packages from the ol7_latest, ol7_addons repositories and all of the supported repositories for UEK.

The modular yum repository configuration files released as packages that can be maintained via yum can help to simplify repository management and also ensure that your yum repository definitions are kept up to date automatically, whenever you update your system.

A list of all available RPM files to manage all of the possible yum repository configurations for your release can be obtained by running:

sudo yum list *release-el7*

To install the yum repository configuration for a particular set of software that you wish to use, use yum to install the corresponding package. For example, to install the yum repository configuration for the Oracle Linux Software Collection Library, run:

sudo yum install oracle-softwarecollection-release-el7

sudo yum update
sudo /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh

The /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh script checks the /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ol7.repo file to determine which repositories are already enabled and installs the appropriate corresponding packages before renaming the original configuration file to /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ol7.repo.sav to disable it in favor of the more recent modular repository configuration files.

If, for some reason, you manage to remove all configuration to access the Oracle Linux yum server repositories, you should create a temporary yum repository configuration file at /etc/yum.repos.d/ol7-temp.repo with the following as the minimum required content:

[ol7_latest]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Latest ($basearch)
baseurl=https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/latest/$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

Then reinstall the oraclelinux-release-el7 package to restore the default yum configuration:

sudo yum reinstall oraclelinux-release-el7
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/ol7-temp.repo      

For more information on manually setting up Oracle Linux yum server repository configuration files, see https://yum.oracle.com/getting-started.html.

You can enable or disable repositories in each repository configuration file by setting the value of the enabled directive to 1 or 0 for each repository listed in the file, as required. The preferred method of enabling or disabling repositories under Oracle Linux 7 is to use the yum-config-manager command as described in Using Yum Utilities to Manage Configuration.

Compute instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure have access to regional yum servers via the service gateway. Regional yum servers on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure differ from the Oracle Linux yum server in that they also mirror content available on restricted ULN channels.

Yum repository configuration in Oracle Linux typically makes use of a yum variable in the baseurl for managing appropriate yum server access. For example, the baseurl to the _latest repository for Oracle Linux 7 is:

baseurl=https://yum$ociregion.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/latest/$basearch/

The $ociregion variable can be set by populating content in /etc/yum/vars/ociregion. If this file does not exist, or the file is empty, the baseurl is expanded to point to the publicly accessible Oracle Linux yum server. In the case of a typical Oracle Cloud Infrastructure compute instance, the value of variable is set when the instance is created so that the baseurl is expanded to point to the closest regional yum server on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure service network. For example, if $ociregion is set to -phx, the baseurl expands to point to the regional yum server located in Phoenix.

By using variables, configuration can remain relatively standard across Oracle Linux deployments but provide access to the additional resources available to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers.

For more information on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and yum repositories, see See Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7.

The yum-utils package includes several utilities that can help you to manage configuration and apply updates safely to your existing configuration. Most significant of these is yum-config-manager.

To install the yum-utils package:

sudo yum install -y yum-utils

You can use yum-config-manager to add repositories either at a specified URL, or within a specified repository file. For example, to add the legacy repository configuration file for Oracle Linux 7 from the Oracle Linux yum server:

sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol7.repo            

You can use the same command to automatically generate a repository configuration file for a valid yum repository, by pointing to the URL where the repository is hosted. For example, to create a new configuration file in /etc/repos.d for the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 repository. run:

sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/UEKR5/x86_64 

To enable a repository using yum-config-manager, use the --enable option. For example, to enable the ol7_addons repository, run:

sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol7_addons

You can use the --disable option in a similar way to disable a repository.

The yum-config-manager tool can also be used to set other configuration options using the --setopt and --save options. See the yum-config-manager(1) manual page for more information.

For a list of the tools included in the yum-utils package and a description of what these tools can do, see the yum-utils(1) manual page for more information.