RHEL7: How to install the EPEL repository.

Presentation

EPEL stands for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux.
It’s a Fedora project bringing a set of additional packages available at least for RHEL 7 and CentOS 7.

There is a list of the available packages in the EPEL repository.

Installation Procedure

To install the EPEL repository, type:

# yum install epel-release

The EPEL7 repository consists of 3 different channels:

• epel: this is the main channel; it is enabled by default,
• epel-debuginfo: this channel provides packages with additional debug information; it is disabled by default,
• epel-source: this channel brings source packages; it is disabled by default.

As the main repository configuration is located in the /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo file, there is also a /etc/yum.repos.d/epel-testing.repo file offering packages for testing.

Activation/Deactivation Procedure

To permanently enable a channel (use the –disable option to disable), type:

# yum-config-manager --enable channel

To only enable a channel during a package installation, type:

# yum --enablerepo=channel install package

Source: Red Hat developer blog.