What is EPEL
EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is an open-source and free community-based repository project from Fedora team which provides 100% high-quality add-on software packages for Linux distribution including RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CentOS, and Scientific Linux.
EPEL project is not a part of RHEL/CentOS but it is designed for major Linux distributions by providing lots of open source packages like networking tools, sysadmin tools, programming, monitoring and so on. Most of the EPEL packages are maintained by Fedora repo.
Why we Use the EPEL Repository?
- Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum and DNF.
- Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
- It does not provide any core duplicate packages and no compatibility issues.
- All EPEL packages are maintained by Fedora repo.
There are two methods using which we can install the EPEL repository on the Linux system,
1- Using the packages from default repositories
2- Using rpm package
1- Using the packages from the default repositories
To install the package from default repositories, use the following command,
CentOS/RHEL 6/7
# yum install epel-release
CentOS/RHEL 8
# dnf install epel-release
This command will work most of the times but I have faced an issue with some versions where this might not work. So if this does not work for you, then you can use the second method.
2- Using RPM packages
For this method, we will directly install the RPM package for epel repository. Based on the version, use one of the following commands,
RHEL/CentOS 6:
# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm
RHEL/CentOS 7:
# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
Epel also recommends for RHEL 7, to enable the optional, extras, and HA repositories since EPEL packages may depend on packages from these repositories, using the following command,
# subscription-manager repos –enable “rhel-*-optional-rpms” –enable “rhel-*-extras-rpms” –enable “rhel-ha-for-rhel-*-server-rpms”
RHEL/CentOS 8:
# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
Note:- EPEL also recommends for RHEL 8, to enable the code ready-builder-for-rhel-8-*-rpms repository since EPEL packages may depend on packages from it. To install it, use the following commands,
# ARCH=$( /bin/arch )
# subscription-manager repos –enable “codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-${ARCH}-rpms”
Note:- For CentOS 8, EPEL recommends to also enable the PowerTools repository since EPEL packages may depend on packages from it, run the following command to enable power tools,
# dnf config-manager –set-enabled PowerTools
Check repository
Once the EPEL repository has been installed, we can check it by executing the following command,
RHEL/CentOS 6/7
# yum repolist
RHEL/CentOS 8
# dnf repolist epel
