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8.3. Working with Transaction History

The yum history command allows users to review information about a timeline of Yum transactions, the dates and times they occurred, the number of packages affected, whether transactions succeeded or were aborted, and if the RPM database was changed between transactions. Additionally, this command can be used to undo or redo certain transactions.

8.3.1. Listing Transactions

To display a list of twenty most recent transactions, as root, either run yum history with no additional arguments, or type the following at a shell prompt: 
yum history list
To display all transactions, add the all keyword: 
yum history list all
To display only transactions in a given range, use the command in the following form: 
yum history list start_id..end_id
You can also list only transactions regarding a particular package or packages. To do so, use the command with a package name or a glob expression: 
yum history list glob_expression
For example, the list of the first five transactions looks as follows: 
~]# yum history list 1..5
Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, subscription-manager
ID     | Login user               | Date and time    | Action(s)      | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     5 | Jaromir ... <jhradilek>  | 2011-07-29 15:33 | Install        |    1
     4 | Jaromir ... <jhradilek>  | 2011-07-21 15:10 | Install        |    1
     3 | Jaromir ... <jhradilek>  | 2011-07-16 15:27 | I, U           |   73
     2 | System <unset>           | 2011-07-16 15:19 | Update         |    1
     1 | System <unset>           | 2011-07-16 14:38 | Install        | 1106
history list
All forms of the yum history list command produce tabular output with each row consisting of the following columns:
  • ID — an integer value that identifies a particular transaction.
  • Login user — the name of the user whose login session was used to initiate a transaction. This information is typically presented in the Full Name <username> form. For transactions that were not issued by a user (such as an automatic system update), System <unset> is used instead.
  • Date and time — the date and time when a transaction was issued.
  • Action(s) — a list of actions that were performed during a transaction as described in Table 8.1, “Possible values of the Action(s) field”.
  • Altered — the number of packages that were affected by a transaction, possibly followed by additional information as described in Table 8.2, “Possible values of the Altered field”.

Table 8.1. Possible values of the Action(s) field

Action Abbreviation Description
Downgrade D At least one package has been downgraded to an older version.
Erase E At least one package has been removed.
Install I At least one new package has been installed.
Obsoleting O At least one package has been marked as obsolete.
Reinstall R At least one package has been reinstalled.
Update U At least one package has been updated to a newer version.

Table 8.2. Possible values of the Altered field

Symbol Description
< Before the transaction finished, the rpmdb database was changed outside Yum.
> After the transaction finished, the rpmdb database was changed outside Yum.
* The transaction failed to finish.
# The transaction finished successfully, but yum returned a non-zero exit code.
E The transaction finished successfully, but an error or a warning was displayed.
P The transaction finished successfully, but problems already existed in the rpmdb database.
s The transaction finished successfully, but the --skip-broken command-line option was used and certain packages were skipped.
Yum also allows you to display a summary of all past transactions. To do so, run the command in the following form as root: 
yum history summary
To display only transactions in a given range, type: 
yum history summary start_id..end_id
Similarly to the yum history list command, you can also display a summary of transactions regarding a certain package or packages by supplying a package name or a glob expression: 
yum history summary glob_expression
For instance, a summary of the transaction history displayed above would look like the following: 
~]# yum history summary 1..5
Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, subscription-manager
Login user                 | Time                | Action(s)        | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jaromir ... <jhradilek>    | Last day            | Install          |        1
Jaromir ... <jhradilek>    | Last week           | Install          |        1
Jaromir ... <jhradilek>    | Last 2 weeks        | I, U             |       73
System <unset>             | Last 2 weeks        | I, U             |     1107
history summary
All forms of the yum history summary command produce simplified tabular output similar to the output of yum history list.
As shown above, both yum history list and yum history summary are oriented towards transactions, and although they allow you to display only transactions related to a given package or packages, they lack important details, such as package versions. To list transactions from the perspective of a package, run the following command as root: 
yum history package-list glob_expression
For example, to trace the history of subscription-manager and related packages, type the following at a shell prompt: 
~]# yum history package-list subscription-manager\*
Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, subscription-manager
ID     | Action(s)      | Package
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     3 | Updated        | subscription-manager-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
     3 | Update         |                      0.95.17-1.el6_1.x86_64
     3 | Updated        | subscription-manager-firstboot-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
     3 | Update         |                                0.95.17-1.el6_1.x86_64
     3 | Updated        | subscription-manager-gnome-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
     3 | Update         |                            0.95.17-1.el6_1.x86_64
     1 | Install        | subscription-manager-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
     1 | Install        | subscription-manager-firstboot-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
     1 | Install        | subscription-manager-gnome-0.95.11-1.el6.x86_64
history package-list
In this example, three packages were installed during the initial system installation: subscription-manager, subscription-manager-firstboot, and subscription-manager-gnome. In the third transaction, all these packages were updated from version 0.95.11 to version 0.95.17.