The package management or software installations on your CentOS-based Linux server can be performed in two different ways, the first is via using a graphical user interface while the other is via command line terminal. The GUI is ok but YUM is a lot more powerful tool globally used by most system administrators.

YUM is one tool made available a long way for managing packages on CentOS Linux systems. One advantage of YUM is it not only keeps track of outdated packages but also monitors outdated dependencies on your server.

Running yum check-update

By running yum check-update command on your server you can check packages that can update candidates. If you have subscribed to a new dedicated server, running this command is going to install the updated candidates on your system.

Installing updated candidates with yum update

Another command called yum update will install all updated candidates on your system, this might take some time to complete depending upon the size of the installation and the speed of your server.

Now you are ready to install software packages

Once these things are done, you are ready to install any software from a central repository with YUM.

Similarly, the list all command of YUM will list all currently available packages, the list installed command shows the packages which are installed using YUM, and the install command is used for installing any package, whereas remove command first removes and then installs a package.

There are many more commands that you will learn about while working on your server. The man yum command is going to provide you with the help file showing all important information.