9.6. Yum Plug-ins

Yum provides plug-ins that extend and enhance its operations. Certain plug-ins are installed by default. Yum always informs you which plug-ins, if any, are loaded and active whenever you call any yum command. For example: 
~]# yum info yum
Loaded plugins: langpacks, product-id, subscription-manager
[output truncated]
Note that the plug-in names which follow Loaded plugins are the names you can provide to the --disableplugin=plugin_name option.

9.6.1. Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Yum Plug-ins

To enable yum plug-ins, ensure that a line beginning with plugins= is present in the [main] section of /etc/yum.conf, and that its value is 1: 
plugins=1
You can disable all plug-ins by changing this line to plugins=0.

Important

Disabling all plug-ins is not advised because certain plug-ins provide important yum services. In particular, the product-id and subscription-manager plug-ins provide support for the certificate-based Content Delivery Network (CDN). Disabling plug-ins globally is provided as a convenience option, and is generally only recommended when diagnosing a potential problem with yum.
Every installed plug-in has its own configuration file in the /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/ directory. You can set plug-in specific options in these files. For example, here is the aliases plug-in's aliases.conf configuration file: 
[main]
enabled=1
Similar to the /etc/yum.conf file, the plug-in configuration files always contain a [main] section where the enabled= option controls whether the plug-in is enabled when you run yum commands. If this option is missing, you can add it manually to the file.
If you disable all plug-ins by setting enabled=0 in /etc/yum.conf, then all plug-ins are disabled regardless of whether they are enabled in their individual configuration files.
If you merely want to disable all yum plug-ins for a single yum command, use the --noplugins option.
If you want to disable one or more yum plug-ins for a single yum command, add the --disableplugin=plugin_name option to the command. For example, to disable the aliases plug-in while updating a system, type: 
~]# yum update --disableplugin=aliases
The plug-in names you provide to the --disableplugin= option are the same names listed after the Loaded plugins line in the output of any yum command. You can disable multiple plug-ins by separating their names with commas. In addition, you can match multiple plug-in names or shorten long ones by using glob expressions: 
~]# yum update --disableplugin=aliases,lang*

9.6.2. Installing Additional Yum Plug-ins

Yum plug-ins usually adhere to the yum-plugin-plugin_name package-naming convention, but not always: the package which provides the kabi plug-in is named kabi-yum-plugins, for example. You can install a yum plug-in in the same way you install other packages. For instance, to install the yum-aliases plug-in, type the following at a shell prompt: 
~]# yum install yum-plugin-aliases

9.6.3. Working with Yum Plug-ins

The following list provides descriptions and usage instructions for several useful yum plug-ins. Plug-ins are listed by names, brackets contain the name of the package.
search-disabled-repos (subscription-manager)
The search-disabled-repos plug-in allows you to temporarily or permanently enable disabled repositories to help resolve dependencies. With this plug-in enabled, when Yum fails to install a package due to failed dependency resolution, it offers to temporarily enable disabled repositories and try again. If the installation succeeds, Yum also offers to enable the used repositories permanently. Note that the plug-in works only with the repositories that are managed by subscription-manager and not with custom repositories.

Important

If yum is executed with the --assumeyes or -y option, or if the assumeyes directive is enabled in /etc/yum.conf, the plug-in enables disabled repositories, both temporarily and permanently, without prompting for confirmation. This may lead to problems, for example, enabling repositories that you do not want enabled.
To configure the search-disabled-repos plug-in, edit the configuration file located in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/search-disabled-repos.conf. For the list of directives you can use in the [main] section, see the table below.

Table 9.3. Supported search-disabled-repos.conf directives

Directive Description
enabled=value Allows you to enable or disable the plug-in. The value must be either 1 (enabled), or 0 (disabled). The plug-in is enabled by default.
notify_only=value Allows you to restrict the behavior of the plug-in to notifications only. The value must be either 1 (notify only without modifying the behavior of Yum), or 0 (modify the behavior of Yum). By default the plug-in only notifies the user.
ignored_repos=repositories Allows you to specify the repositories that will not be enabled by the plug-in.
kabi (kabi-yum-plugins)
The kabi plug-in checks whether a driver update package conforms with the official Red Hat kernel Application Binary Interface (kABI). With this plug-in enabled, when a user attempts to install a package that uses kernel symbols which are not on a whitelist, a warning message is written to the system log. Additionally, configuring the plug-in to run in enforcing mode prevents such packages from being installed at all.
To configure the kabi plug-in, edit the configuration file located in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/kabi.conf. A list of directives that can be used in the [main] section is shown in the table below.

Table 9.4. Supported kabi.conf directives

Directive Description
enabled=value Allows you to enable or disable the plug-in. The value must be either 1 (enabled), or 0 (disabled). When installed, the plug-in is enabled by default.
whitelists=directory Allows you to specify the directory in which the files with supported kernel symbols are located. By default, the kabi plug-in uses files provided by the kernel-abi-whitelists package (that is, the /usr/lib/modules/kabi-rhel70/ directory).
enforce=value Allows you to enable or disable enforcing mode. The value must be either 1 (enabled), or 0 (disabled). By default, this option is commented out and the kabi plug-in only displays a warning message.
product-id (subscription-manager)
The product-id plug-in manages product identity certificates for products installed from the Content Delivery Network. The product-id plug-in is installed by default.
langpacks (yum-langpacks)
The langpacks plug-in is used to search for locale packages of a selected language for every package that is installed. The langpacks plug-in is installed by default.
aliases (yum-plugin-aliases)
The aliases plug-in adds the alias command-line option which enables configuring and using aliases for yum commands.
yum-changelog (yum-plugin-changelog)
The yum-changelog plug-in adds the --changelog command-line option that enables viewing package change logs before and after updating.
yum-tmprepo (yum-plugin-tmprepo)
The yum-tmprepo plug-in adds the --tmprepo command-line option that takes the URL of a repository file, downloads and enables it for only one transaction. This plug-in tries to ensure the safe temporary usage of repositories. By default, it does not allow to disable the gpg check.
yum-verify (yum-plugin-verify)
The yum-verify plug-in adds the verify, verify-rpm, and verify-all command-line options for viewing verification data on the system.
yum-versionlock (yum-plugin-versionlock)
The yum-versionlock plug-in excludes other versions of selected packages, which enables protecting packages from being updated by newer versions. With the versionlock command-line option, you can view and edit the list of locked packages.