Docs/Drafts/SoftwareManagementGuide/SearchwithYum

5. Searching for Packages with yum
Use the search features of  to find software that is available from the configured repositories, or already installed on your system. Searches automatically include both installed and available packages.

The format of the results depends upon the option. If the query produces no information, there are no packages matching the criteria.

5.1. Searching by Package Name and Attributes
To search for a specific package by name, use the list function. To search for the package, use the command:

Enter the password for the root account when prompted.

To make your queries more precise, specify packages with a name that include other attributes, such as version or hardware architecture. To search for version 0.132 of the application, use the command:

5.2. Advanced Searches
If you do not know the name of the package, use the search or provides options. Alternatively, use wild cards with any  search option to broaden the search criteria.

The search option checks the names, descriptions, summaries and listed package maintainers of all of the available packages to find those that match. For example, to search for all packages that relate to Palm Pilots, type:

Enter the password for the root account when prompted.

The provides function checks both the files included in the packages and the functions that the software provides. This option requires  to download and read much larger index files than with the search option.

To search for all packages that include files called, type:

To search for all packages that either provide a MTA (Mail Transport Agent) service, or include files with  in their name:

For each command, at the prompt enter the password for the root account.

Use the standard wild-card characters to run any search option with a partial word or name:  to represent any one character, and   to mean zero or more characters. Always add the escape character  before wild-cards.

To list all packages with names that begin with, type:

5.3. Understanding Matches
Searches with  show all of the packages that match your criteria. Packages must meet the terms of the search exactly to be considered matches, unless you use wild-cards.

For example, a search query for  or   would not produce the package. This package would match and be shown if the query was, or.