The Geek Diary

CentOS / RHEL 6 : How to list or install only security updates with yum

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Question: Is it possible to limit yum so that it lists or installs only security updates? How to patch the system only with security errata?

Install the yum-security plugin

It is now possible to limit yum to install only security updates (as opposed to bug fixes or enhancements) by installing the yum-security plugin. Contrary to RHEL 7, in RHEL 6 the yum-security plugin is not part of yum. So to install the plugin use :

# yum install yum-plugin-security

listing available erratas

To list all available erratas without installing them, run:

# yum updateinfo list available

Listing available security updates

To list all available security updates without installing them, run:

# yum updateinfo list security all
# yum updateinfo list sec

To list all available security updates with verbose descriptions of the issues they apply to:

# yum info-sec

Listing currently installed security updates

To get a list of the currently installed security updates this command can be used:

# yum updateinfo list security installed

Installing available security updates

Run the following command to download and apply all available security updates :

# yum -y update --security
NOTE: It will install the last version available of any package with at least one security errata thus can install non-security erratas if they provide a more updated version of the package.

To only install the packages that have a security errata use

# yum update-minimal --security -y

For more commands consult the manual pages of yum-security with

# man yum-security

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