Subscribing to Different Yum Repositories

Subscribe to different yum repositories in Oracle Linux.

Oracle Linux uses modular yum repository configuration files that are made available as release packages that are maintained through yum. Release packages simplify repository management and also ensures that yum repository definitions are kept up-to-date automatically whenever you update the system.

On all Oracle Linux systems, the oraclelinux-release-eln package is installed by default. This package contains the core repository configurations to access all the repositories required for an Oracle Linux system to install common OS software packages and the other release packages used to obtain other yum repository configurations.

To install the yum repository configuration for a particular set of software, use the dnf command to install the corresponding package.

  1. List the available release configuration packages.
    To view a list of available RPM files for managing yum repository configurations, run the following command.
    dnf list "*release-el10*"
    dnf list "*release-el9*"
    dnf list "*release-el8*"
  2. Install any required yum repository configuration packages.
    Use the dnf command to install the corresponding package for any required yum repository configurations. For example, to install the available yum configurations for developer release software on Oracle Linux, you can run: 
    sudo dnf install oraclelinux-developer-release-el10
    sudo dnf install oraclelinux-developer-release-el9
    sudo dnf install oraclelinux-developer-release-el8

Editing Yum Repository Configuration Files

DNF uses yum repository configuration files to configure where to install different packages and their dependencies from. By default, repository configuration files are stored in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory. You can define another directory location to store repository configurations by setting the reposdir directive in the dnf.conf file.

Use the repository directory to define .repo files for repositories that you want to make available. A .repo file can contain entries for more than one yum repository. To subscribe to a repository, you can edit the enabled option to a value of 1 and save the configuration file. The change has immediate effect.

The following table describes the basic directives for a repository. Any other directive that appears in the repository file override the corresponding global definition in the [main] section of the DNF configuration file. See the dnf.conf(5) manual page for more information.

Directive Description
baseurl Location of the repository (expressed as a file://, ftp://, http://, or https:// address). This directive must be specified.
enabled Whether to enable dnf to use the repository. Set the value to 1 to enable the repository, or 0 to disable the repository.
name Descriptive name for the repository channel. This directive must be specified.

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

[ol10_appstream]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Application Stream ($basearch)
baseurl=https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL10/appstream/$basearch
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

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

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

[ol9_appstream]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Application Stream ($basearch)
baseurl=https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL9/appstream/$basearch
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

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

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

[ol8_appstream]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever Application Stream ($basearch)
baseurl=https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/appstream/$basearch
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

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

Configure Compute Instances Access to Regional Yum Server Repositories

Compute instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) have access to regional yum servers through the service gateway. The base URL of the repository uses the $ociregion variable to define which regional server to use and the $ocidomain variable to define the domain where the yum server is located. By using variables, configuration can remain relatively standard across Oracle Linux deployments but provide access to extra resources available to OCI customers.

For example, the base URL to the ol8_baseos_latest repository for Oracle Linux 8 is: 

baseurl=https://yum$ociregion.$ocidomain/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/baseos/latest/$basearch

You can set the $ociregion variable by populating content in /etc/dnf/vars/ociregion. For example, if $ociregion is set to -phx, the base URL expands to point to the regional yum server in Phoenix.

Typically, when you create an instance, this value is set to point to the closest regional yum server on the OCI service network. If the /etc/dnf/vars/ociregion file doesn't exist, or the file is empty, the base URL points to the publicly accessible Oracle Linux yum server.

Using the DNF config-manager Plugin

The dnf config-manager plugin is used to manage DNF configuration and yum repositories.

The dnf-plugins-core package includes several utilities that can help you to manage configuration and safely apply updates to existing configuration. The most significant of these utilities is the dnf config-manager plugin, which can be used to edit and manage DNF configuration.

The following options are available:

--add-repo url

You can use dnf config-manager to add repositories, either at a specified URL or within a specified repository file. For example, to add a repository configuration file for Oracle Linux that's hosted on a remote server, you can run the following command: 

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://example.com/my_yum_config.repo

You can use the same command to automatically generate a repository configuration file for a valid yum repository by pointing to the URL of which the repository is hosted. For example, to create a configuration file in /etc/repos.d for an example repository, run the following command: 

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://example.com/repo/el-release/myrepo/x86_64
--enable repo_name

To enable a repository, use the --enable option. For example, to enable a repository named myrepo, run the following command: 

sudo dnf config-manager --enable myrepo
--disable repo_name

To disable a repository, use the --enable option. For example, to disable a repository named myrepo, run the following command: 

sudo dnf config-manager --disable myrepo
--setopt option=value

Use the --setopt option to set a configuration option to a specified value. For example, to disable GPG key validation on a repository named myrepo, run the following command: 

sudo dnf config-manager --save --setopt=gpgcheck=0 myrepo
Note that the --save option is often used with --setopt, so that the value is saved to the configuration.
--save

Saves the current configuration.

--dump

To view the current DNF configuration, use the --dump option to output the configuration to stdout.

See the dnf.plugin.config_manager(8) manual page for more information.

How to Recover the Base Yum Repository Configuration

Perform this task if the system's base repository configuration has been corrupted or otherwise lost.
  1. Create a temporary repository configuration file in /etc/yum.repos.d/temp_base.repo, and populate the file with entries corresponding to the system's OS version.

    For Oracle Linux 10: 

    sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/temp_base.repo <<EOF
[ol10_baseos_latest]
name=Oracle Linux 10 BaseOS Latest (\$basearch)
baseurl=https://yum\$ociregion.\$ocidomain/repo/OracleLinux/OL10/baseos/latest/\$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
EOF

    For Oracle Linux 9: 

    sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/temp_base.repo <<EOF
[ol9_baseos_latest]
name=Oracle Linux 9 BaseOS Latest (\$basearch)
baseurl=https://yum\$ociregion.\$ocidomain/repo/OracleLinux/OL9/baseos/latest/\$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
EOF

    For Oracle Linux 8: 

    sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/temp_base.repo <<EOF
[ol8_baseos_latest]
name=Oracle Linux 8 BaseOS Latest (\$basearch)
baseurl=https://yum\$ociregion.\$ocidomain/repo/OracleLinux/OL8/baseos/latest/\$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
EOF
  2. Reinstall the required release packages of the system's OS version to set up the standard yum repository configurations.
    sudo dnf reinstall oraclelinux-release-ol10
    sudo dnf reinstall oraclelinux-release-ol9
    sudo dnf reinstall oraclelinux-release-ol8
  3. Verify that the recovery is successful.
    ls /etc/yum.repos.d/oraclelinux-release-ol10
    ls /etc/yum.repos.d/oraclelinux-release-ol9
    ls /etc/yum.repos.d/oraclelinux-release-ol8
  4. Remove the temporary configuration file.
    rm /etc/yum.repos.d/temp_base.repo
  5. Reinstall other required release packages to obtain the correct repository configurations.
    sudo dnf reinstall repository
  6. Enable the repositories that you need.
    sudo dnf config-manager --enable repository