What is the EPEL repository?

The Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is an unofficial repository that provides a variety of packages that are not in the official RHEL and derivative repositories. It is quite reliable and secure, so it is highly recommended to enable it if we need any packages available in this repository.

Keep in mind that Linux distirbutions such as RHEL and its derivatives, as well as Debian, Ubuntu and SUSE, incorporate packages tested by them. In this immense effort, there are many very good packages that cannot be added to the repositories.

For that reason, these repositories are born, to be able to install many extra packages without much effort… let us get to work.

Enable the EPEL repository on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 / Oracle Linux 8

The EPEL project is fantastic. Not only because of the large number of packages available but also because of the ease of use. To add it, you have to download and install an RPM package that they put at our disposal.

So, open a terminal and upgrade the system.

:~$ sudo dnf update

This way we will have all the packages updated with the built-in security patches.

Now install the repository configuration package with the following command:

:~$ sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Then, check that everything is OK with the new repository. So, list all the enabled repository.

:~$ sudo dnf repolist -v

As you can see in the image, the repository was correctly added. That is to say, we will be able to use it.

You can see all available packages with the following command:

:~$ sudo dnf repository-packages epel list

The image above shows that there are many packages available to be installed thanks to the EPEL repository.

Conclusion

In conclusion, adding the EPEL repository is almost an obligation if we want to counter many extra packages for our distribution. On the other hand, EPEL is a safe, reliable and easy to enable repository. To be so simple, the benefits are many.

Also, you can read How to enable Sudo on Debian 10?

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It provides a good amount of updated and stable packages ready to be installed in CentOS.

The main advantages of using this repository are:

• Provides updated packages easily installable via YUM.
• It is a reliable and secure repository. Maintained by Fedora repo.
• It provides us with packages that are not in the official CENTOS or RHEL repositories.
• Built with open source tools.

Enabling the EPEL repository

For RHEL and CentOS 7 64bits

In order to achieve the goal, the first thing you must do to enable the EPEL repository is to have root user privileges, so write to a terminal:

:~$ su

After you have set your root password, you can continue with the repository enable.

Next, you must make sure to have wget installed, which is a utility to download files from the terminal.

:~# yum install wget

Once you are sure you have wget installed, you can download the.rpm package that configures the repository. Run,

:~# wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Once the package has been downloaded, install it.

:~# rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

For RHEL and CentOS 6 64bits

For the previous version, i.e. CentOS 6, the process is similar. First, make sure you have wget:

:~# yum install wget

And then, proceed to download the specific package for this version.

:~# wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

And finally, proceed to install it as a .rpm package.

:~# rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

That’s it.

Verifying the repository was added correctly

If the installation went well, you should have the repository added correctly but you can prove it. Type the following command to do this:

:~# yum repolist

Now, you can say that the repository was successfully added.

Using EPEL on CentOS 7

To use the EPEL repository, you must use YUM, and you can search for a package if it is available within that repository. I will use the nagios package as an example.

:~# yum --enablerepo=epel info nagios

And if you wanted to install it, you would use the following command:

:~# yum --enablerepo=epel install nagios

Adding the EPEL repository in our CentOS or RHEL is of vital importance because of the number of packages they have, and even more, updated than those that come by default in the official repositories.

Tell us about your experience with CentOS and the EPEL repository?

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