Since my Linux experience began in July 1997, during my 6th visit to the Philippines, I have been accustomed to using the Linux terminal, rather than a GUI (Graphical User Interface). Ever since my early days of MS-DOS (mid 1980s era), I learned how to do stuff, faster, without a mouse. To me, the mouse just slows me down as I think of it as a lazyman’s tool.
Ok, enough about my history… Now, I will mention some great Linux commands that is exclusively to Fedora from Red Hat. They can be made to work, yet with some difficulty, with non-Fedora varients or flavors. These commands are exclusively for use in the Linux terminal with a non-root account.
sudo yum update
This command will ask you for the root password before downloading the the indexes for the repositories currently cataloged in your Fedora installation. You can view the index downloads in real time. Then it will find packages to update, and will include any dependencies required. You will be presented with a list of packages to be downloaded, including the size of each package. You will be presented with a Yes or No prompt, awaiting for your approval. When you approve, downloads will begin. Once all of the downloads finish, the system will then, test the installation. Once the tests passes, the packages are installed and the old ones are cleaned up. If everything worked out, it will tell you. — I usually run this command, once daily. There’s no need to run it more than once, daily.
yum search {packagename}
This is a great way to search for packages, and often, the fastest way. Yum first checks the repositories or indexes to see if any updates needed to be done. Then, the real search is done with an accurate index. You can then see which packages are available for installing on your system. Don’t worry about dependencies; Yum does that for you.
sudo yum install {packagename}
Ok, you want to install the package you found in yum search. Go ahead and install it. Yum will verify the correct spelling of the package you wish to install, then find all of the dependencies for that package. If your package and its dependencies are located, you are then presented with a prompt, waiting for your approval. Once you approve, the packages are then downloaded, tested, and then, installed.
sudo yum erase {packagename}
Use extreme caution with this command. In fact, don’t use this command unless you know what you are doing. If you make a mistake, you could kill your Fedora installation.
Notice the use of the sudo command. This is like Administrator status in a Microsoft Windows installation. Unlike most Windows installations, administrator access is temporary when sudo is used. It will ask you for the root password. It is best to not configure sudo to function without the root password.
As there are many Fedora Linux newbies out there, I hope this post will be helpful to you. Thanks for reading it.
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