How do I exclude kernel or other packages from getting updated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux while updating system via yum?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
  • Red Hat Satellite
  • Red Hat Network

Issue

  • How do I exclude kernel or other packages from getting updated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux while updating system via yum?
  • How do I use the exclude option with yum?
  • How to prevent a package from updating while updating system from Satellite Server ?
  • How to exclude only 32 bit or 64 bit packages ?

Resolution

  • The up2date command in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 excludes kernel updates by default. The yum in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 includes kernel updates by default.

  • To skip installing or updating kernel or other packages while using the yum update utility in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and 7, use following options:

  • Temporary solution via Command line:

# yum update --exclude=PACKAGENAME

For example, to exclude all kernel related packages:

# yum update --exclude=kernel*
  • To make permanent changes, edit the /etc/yum.conf file and following entries to it:
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exclude=kernel* redhat-release*                           <====

NOTE: If there are multiple package to be excluded then separate them using a single space or comma. Also, do not add multiple exclude= lines in the configuration file because yum only considers the last exclude entry.

To exclude 32 bit packages edit /etc/yum.conf file.

exclude=*.i?86 *.i686
  • Component
  • yum

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9 Comments

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YG Newbie 5 points
15 September 2014 1:50 PM

Shouldn't you also exclude redhat-release* to prevent the /etc/redhat-release file to be updated independently of the kernel? If you don't do this you risk having a kernel version older than what the redhat-release file says you have.

Amel Hodzic's picture Pro 649 points
4 March 2015 8:01 AM

Is there a repository-specific way to make that change? Namely, to exclude the kernel updates from the rhel-7-server-beta-rpms repository. The notes in the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo state that the changes made to the file are overwritten and that subscription-manager should be used instead. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to accomplish this with the subscription-manager?

So far, adding the exclude line to the [rhel-7-server-beta-rpms] section in /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file works as expected.

UPDATE
The following command will add the option to a specific repository using the subscription-manager:
subscription-manager repo-override --repo=rhel-7-server-beta-rpms --add=exclude:kernel*,redhat-release*

AS Newbie 10 points
14 October 2015 3:36 PM

Your solution has subtle bug: it also prevents kernel-headers from updating which would ruin eventually installing packages having dependency on newer glibc which has dependency on newer kernel-headers. My fix was to remove "star" from exclusion string so that only "kernel" package would match, and "kernel-headers" won't be excluded.

TD Newbie 12 points
17 October 2015 5:12 AM

i have a problem about include kernel or exclude kernel,if i using yum to update my RHEL 6.1.
Is other packeage(like nscd,firefox,....) have any different between include kernel update and exclude kernel update?

AS Newbie 10 points
19 October 2015 11:54 AM

My particular problem was VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules ruined after unintended kernel upgrade.

You can try this command which would run update temporary disabling all exclusions:

yum --disableexcludes=all update
PC Newbie 5 points
13 December 2015 7:15 AM

I am getting below error if i tried to exclude redhat-release package.

-> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: unbound-libs conflicts with redhat-release-server-7.0-1.el7.x86_64
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
[root@UA-HA ~]#
JF Red Hat Active Contributor 230 points
20 December 2016 12:47 AM

Simple solution: rhel-7-server-rhceph-1.3-osd-rpms is available on all OSP SKUs, so just enable the repos at no cost to solve this problem.

CA Community Member 95 points
13 November 2018 4:31 PM

i use to exclude the kernel but a colleague just advised me that it is good to update verything together

jJ Newbie 19 points
6 July 2020 8:14 AM

Is there any problem of installing New kernel every month?
for Eg: I use to run yum update --security

Since we were facing zombie process on the servers.

[root@TCLDIGMDMAPRD02 ~]# ps -ef | grep defunct root 955 906 0 13:49 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto defunct root 22918 22915 0 01:13 pts/1 00:00:00 [sh] root 23881 23880 0 01:58 ? 00:00:00 [ksmtuned] root 25558 25553 0 04:00 ? 00:00:00 [date] root 26856 26854 0 05:40 ? 00:00:00 [date] root 27471 27466 0 06:30 ? 00:00:00 [date] root 29671 29666 0 09:00 ? 00:00:00 [date] root 31352 31351 0 11:10 ? 00:00:00 [date]

[root@TCLDIGMDMAPRD02 ~]# ps -ef | grep 29671 root 958 906 0 13:49 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto 29671 root 29671 29666 0 09:00 ? 00:00:00 [date]

[root@TCLDIGMDMAPRD02 ~]# ps -xal | grep 29666 0 0 960 906 20 0 112708 964 pipe_w S+ pts/0 0:00 grep --color=auto 29666 0 0 29666 29659 20 0 113184 1192 - Rs ? 21114870:52 /bin/sh /usr/lib64/sa/sa1 1 1 0 0 29671 29666 20 0 0 0 do_exi Z ? 0:00 [date]