Note: Ubuntu defaults to using apt (Advanced Package Tool) as its package manager, not yum (Yellowdog Updater Modified). yum is primarily designed for Red Hat-based distributions (e.g., CentOS, Fedora). However, if you’ve installed yum on Ubuntu (e.g., via third-party repositories or custom setups), the following details cover its search functionality.
The yum search command is the primary tool for finding software packages in yum-enabled systems. It scans all available repositories (as configured on your system) and returns a list of packages whose names or descriptions contain the specified keyword.
Command Syntax:
yum search <keyword>
Example: To find all packages related to the “nginx” web server, run:
yum search nginx
This will display a list of matching packages (e.g., nginx, nginx-mod-http-geoip) along with brief descriptions (e.g., “High performance web server”).
Key Notes:
yum search NGINX yields the same results as yum search nginx).For more granular control, you can use regular expressions to refine your search. This is useful when you want to match specific patterns in package names (e.g., all packages starting with “vim”).
Command Syntax:
yum search '<regex_pattern>'
Example: To find all packages whose names begin with “vim”, use:
yum search 'vim.*'
This will return packages like vim, vim-enhanced, vim-common, etc.
Caution: Regular expressions can be powerful but also complex. Test your patterns carefully to avoid unintended matches.
To further filter or process yum search output, you can pipe it to other command-line tools like grep. This is helpful when you want to narrow down results based on specific criteria (e.g., excluding certain keywords).
Example: Find all packages related to “http” but exclude those containing “server”:
yum search http | grep -vi server
Here, grep -vi server filters out any lines containing the word “server” (case-insensitive), leaving only packages focused on HTTP clients, libraries, or utilities.
Alternative: If you’re unsure about package names, you can combine yum search with apt-cache show (Ubuntu’s native tool) to get detailed information before installing. For example:
yum search <keyword> | grep -i <specific_term> | xargs -I {} sudo apt-cache show {}
This workflow helps bridge the gap between yum’s search capabilities and Ubuntu’s package management system.
While yum can be used on Ubuntu, it is not recommended as the primary package manager. Key reasons include:
yum may conflict with Ubuntu’s native package management tools (apt, dpkg), leading to broken dependencies or system instability.yum relies on Red Hat-based repositories (e.g., .rpm), which are not optimized for Ubuntu’s Debian-based architecture (.deb). This can result in missing or incompatible packages.apt ecosystem is designed to work seamlessly with its repositories, offering features like automatic dependency resolution, simplified commands (apt install, apt search), and better integration with Ubuntu-specific tools.For these reasons, it’s strongly advised to use apt for package management on Ubuntu. If you need to use yum (e.g., for a specific legacy application), ensure you understand the risks and test thoroughly in a non-production environment.