You can use the repoquery command to list packages, it will work with installed packages as well packages not yet installed.
Install yum-utils
$ sudo yum -y install yum-utils
Example syntax below
$ repoquery -q -l <package_name>
$ repoquery -q -l --plugins <package_name>
$ repoquery -i <package_name>
For example
$ repoquery -q -l mysql-libs
/etc/ld.so.conf.d/mysql-i386.conf
/etc/my.cnf
/usr/lib/mysql
/usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.so.16
/usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.so.16.0.0
/usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient_r.so.16
/usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient_r.so.16.0.0
/usr/share/doc/mysql-libs-5.1.66
/usr/share/doc/mysql-libs-5.1.66/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/mysql-libs-5.1.66/README.mysql-license
/usr/share/mysql
/usr/share/mysql/charsets
/usr/share/mysql/charsets/Index.xml
/usr/share/mysql/charsets/README
Or for more information
$ repoquery -i mysql-libs
Name : mysql-libs
Version : 5.1.69
Release : 1.el6_4
Architecture: i686
Size : 4126608
Packager : CentOS BuildSystem <http://bugs.centos.org>
Group : Applications/Databases
URL : http://www.mysql.com
Repository : updates
Summary : The shared libraries required for MySQL clients
Source : mysql-5.1.69-1.el6_4.src.rpm
Description :
The mysql-libs package provides the essential shared libraries for any
MySQL client program or interface. You will need to install this package
to use any other MySQL package or any clients that need to connect to a
MySQL server.
Use it in conjunction with the yum list updates command
$ yum list updates
$ yum list updates openssh
$ sudo yum -y update openssh
Shows output (among other)
[root@Centos anton]# Running Transaction Test
1/6
Updating : openssh-server-5.3p1-81.el6_3.i686 2/6
Updating : openssh-clients-5.3p1-81.el6_3.i686 3/6
Cleanup : openssh-clients-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 4/6
Cleanup : openssh-server-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 5/6
Cleanup : openssh-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 6/6
Verifying : openssh-server-5.3p1-81.el6_3.i686 1/6
Verifying : openssh-5.3p1-81.el6_3.i686 2/6
Verifying : openssh-clients-5.3p1-81.el6_3.i686 3/6
Verifying : openssh-clients-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 4/6
Verifying : openssh-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 5/6
Verifying : openssh-server-5.3p1-81.el6.i686 6/6
Updated:
openssh.i686 0:5.3p1-81.el6_3
Dependency Updated:
openssh-clients.i686 0:5.3p1-81.el6_3 openssh-server.i686 0:5.3p1-81.el6_3
Complete!
[root@Centos anton]#
Exclude Packages
You can permanently exclude packages you do not wish to be updated with yum update, just add an entry into yum.conf
$ sudo vi /etc/yum.conf
and append the following in the 'main' section
exclude=kernel*php* to exclude kernel and php packages
Disable the exclude if necessary by using
$ sudo yum -y --disableexcludes=main install php
$ sudo yum -y --disableexcludes=all update
$ sudo yum -y --disableexcludes=repoid install php
Other commands
$ yum info <package_name>
$ yum repolist
$ yum list available
$ yum list available | grep gimp
Shows output
gimp-data-extras.noarch 2.0.2-3.1.el6 base
gimp-devel.i686 2:2.6.9-4.el6_3.3 updates
gimp-devel-tools.i686 2:2.6.9-4.el6_3.3 updates
gimp-help.noarch 2.4.2-5.1.el6 base
gimp-help-browser.i686 2:2.6.9-4.el6_3.3 updates
gimpfx-foundry.noarch 2.6.1-3.el6 epel
More repoquery commands
More repos
Labels: Centos 6, Repoquery, RHEL, Yum