Available Repositories for CentOS
There are several repositories provided by CentOS and other 3rd party developers that offer software packages that are not included in the default base and updates repositories. While no list can be 100% complete, as anyone may announce an archive, it represents some major efforts and provides a summary of what each repository offers. These repositories have varying levels of stability, support and cooperation within the CentOS community.
Additional CentOS Provided Repositories
CentOS Extras - This repository contains items that provide additional functionality to CentOS without breaking upstream compatibility or updating base components. The CentOS development team have tested every item in this repository and they all work with CentOS. They have not been tested by the upstream provider and are not available in the upstream products. This repository is shipped with CentOS and is enabled by default.
Popular packages from this repository include: The horde framework and packages, freenx, apt, XFCE, and yumex for CentOS-4 and CentOS-5. The CentOS-6 Extras repo currently contains only centos-release-cr for the Continuous Release repository.
CentOSPlus - This repository contains items that actually upgrade certain base CentOS components. This repo will change CentOS so that it is not exactly like the upstream provider's content. The CentOS development team have tested every item in this repository and they all work with CentOS. They have not been tested by the upstream provider and are not available in the upstream products. This repository is shipped with CentOS but is not enabled by default.
Popular packages from this repository include: postfix with database support ( for CentOS 4 & 5), a rebuilt kernel with additional drivers & filesystem support, php5 and mysql5 ( for CentOS 4 only ).
CS/GFS - This repository is a rebuild of the upstream provider's Cluster Suite and Global File System for CentOS-4 and provides support for the x86 and x86_64 architectures. The CentOS development team have tested every item in this repository and they all work under CentOS-4. This repository is not shipped by default with CentOS-4 , although the repository config file can be found at http://mirror.centos.org/centos-4/4/csgfs/CentOS-csgfs.repo.
CentOS-Testing - This repository is a proving ground for packages on their way to CentOSPlus and CentOS Extras. They may or may not replace core CentOS packages and are not guaranteed to function properly. These packages install but are waiting for feedback from testers as to their functionality and stability. Packages in this repository will come and go during the development period, so it should not be left enabled or used on production systems. This repository is intentionally not shipped with CentOS by default, although the repository config files can be found at: CentOS 4: http://dev.centos.org/centos/4/CentOS-Testing.repo CentOS 5: http://dev.centos.org/centos/5/CentOS-Testing.repo CentOS 6: http://dev.centos.org/centos/6/testing/CentOS-Testing.repo
CentOS-Fasttrack - This repository contains bugfix and enhancement updates, issued from time to time, between update sets that may be rolled into the next update set. See this Readme file for more details. This repository has a config file located here for CentOS-4. CentOS-5 Fasttrack is now available and can be accessed with the repo configuration here.
debuginfo - This repository contains packages with debugging symbols generated when the primary packages were built. No repo config is provided by default. Tools like oprofile, crash, and systemtap require debuginfo packages. Note that debuginfo packages may not be signed so must be installed with "--nogpgcheck" or using "gpgcheck=0" in the repo definition. These packages are found at http://debuginfo.centos.org/
contrib - This repository contains packages contributed by CentOS users which do not overlap with any of the core distribution packages. These packages have not been tested by the CentOS developers and may not track the upstream version releases very closely.
CR - The continuous release ( CR ) repository contains packages from the next point release of CentOS, which isn't itself released as yet.
3rd Party Repositories
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WARNING: These repositories are not provided nor supported by CentOS. They are listed in a 'catch as catch can' order, and being listed earlier does not imply any particular merit to a given repository. The CentOS project exercises no editorial control over the assertions of computability made by these sites. Many 3rd party repositories are mutually incompatible and will cause dependency issues and conflicts, as well as stability issues, if used together! If something from them breaks, you get to keep the pieces. Some of the repos, such as RPMforge, ELRepo, ATrpms, EPEL and RPMfusion have their own mailing lists for support issues with their packages. |
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NOTE: If you are considering using a 3rd Party Repository, then you should seriously consider how to prevent unintended 'updates' from these side archives from over-writing some core part of CentOS. One approach is to only enable these archives from time to time, and generally leave them disabled. See: man yum |
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Another approach is to use the exclude= and includepkgs= options on a per sub-archive basis, in the matching .conf file found in /etc/yum.repos.d/ See: man yum.conf |
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There are also additional non-stock plug-ins to extend yum using the Priorities (or ProtectBase) yum plugin. (The Priorities and ProtectBase plugins can each prevent a 3rd party repository from replacing base packages, but Priorities is much more flexible and therefore a more powerful plugin.) |
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RPMForge - This repository is a collaboration of Dag (who also maintains an individual archive) and other packagers. The archive provides over 10,000 packages for CentOS, including mplayer, xmms-mp3 and other popular media tools. You can read the installation instructions at Installing RPMForge. This repository is considered by many in the community to be stable and safe.
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This repository sometimes is referred to as DAG repository or similar. |
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Request Tracker - This repository provides a yum based install for the popular request tracker ticketing system and its dependencies. This repository is available at http://campus.fct.unl.pt/paulomatos/rt/repository/3.4.x/rt-3.4.x.repo and the centos news article is at http://www.centos.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=114 Note: - If you are planning to use this repository and have ProtectBase configured for your base repositories, you need to "protect" this repository also, as it has to overwrite at least two packages from the base distribution (namely mod_perl). And it has some contents that would be overwritten by the rpmforge repository, if the rt repository isn't "protected". Note: - If you are using this repository and the rpmforge repository and you don't have the ProtectBase or Priorities plugin installed, you have to put the following exclude into your /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmforge.repo file:
exclude=perl-DBIx-SearchBuilder
Otherwise installation will complain about "Missing Dependency: perl(DBD::Oracle) is needed by package perl-DBIx-SearchBuilder."
KBS-Extras - This site (by a CentOS team member) provides a rebuild of selected packages from the archive formerly known as Fedora Extras but patched as needed for CentOS, as well as number of other packages. This repository is available at http://centos.karan.org and has a reputation for being stable and safe. Current CentOS 5 packages are in -testing repos only, the primary repos being empty.
kde-redhat.sf.net - This repository provides more recent (bleeding-edge) versions of KDE for use on Red Hat based systems. This repository has a decent reputation and a sizable support community. Note: - This repo will update MANY packages to newer versions than Base CentOS ships, including all of KDE, QT, samba, etc. A CentOS team member commented at revision 25: "This seems to work OK on all machines I have tried but your machine will be far from CentOS with many changes to the [Base] CentOS Operating System." Information concerning setup is available here: http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/
ATrpms - This repository provides many bleeding-edge applications and media utilities such as myth-tv. This repository is available at http://atrpms.net/
This repository's CentOS 4 and earlier archive replaces system packages with versions which are usually later than those which Base CentOS ships, and may cause stability issues. Use at your own risk.
The CentOS 5/RHEL 5 repository from atrpms.net is safe to use, if you only use the stable version. Packages in there do not overwrite system packages.
If you also enable testing and bleeding sub-trees from, ATrpms, you are in uncharted waters again - these two do overwrite system packages; testing however, has been labeled a misnomer by Axel Thimm and is pretty much required to get MythTV and a lot of other ATrpms multimedia packages to work. ATrpms testing has actually been tested and is analogous to centosplus.
Mailing list for atrpms users.
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) - This repository (See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL) provides rebuilds of Fedora packages for EL4 and EL5. Install the appropriate epel-release package for EL4, EL5, or EL6 to configure.
This repo has made efforts not to replace system packages. In some cases it has endeavored to directly address CentOS compatibility but has expressly denied inter-repository compatibility as a goal. It may not mix well with other 3rd party repos. So, make SURE you are using the Priorities yum plugin if you are using EPEL ... especially if you mix its packages with those from other 3rd party repos. It should also be noted that, while EPEL may not overwrite distro packages, it may have conflicts with the CentOS extras repo which is enabled by default.
Mailing list for EPEL development - not really a support list, but seems to be the only option.
On that list, an EPEL community member has indicated that attending to CentOS support and compatibility (to 'cater for' CentOS) was not an EPEL responsibility to him, as the CentOS usage level was not "verified with a realistic statistic". Another at EPEL recalled the history and represented a 'cooler head' with a goal to not gratuitously break CentOS with version skew.
Adobe Repository - This repository (See http://blogs.adobe.com/acroread/2008/02/adobe_reader_now_available_via.html) provides Adobe Reader in a number of languages and flash-plugin. Install adobe-release to configure the repo http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/i386/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm for the i386 arch or http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/linux/x86_64/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm for x86_64.
RPMfusion Repository - (See http://rpmfusion.org/) Still in its infancy, particularly as regards EL5 packages - most available packages are in "testing" stage as of this writing. Suggest extreme caution if using this repo.
From the above link: "RPM Fusion provides software that the Fedora Project or Red Hat doesn't want to ship. That software is provided as precompiled RPMs for all current Fedora versions and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5; you can use the RPM Fusion repositories with tools like yum and PackageKit. RPM Fusion is a merger of Dribble, Freshrpms, and Livna; our goal is to simplify end-user experience by grouping as much add-on software as possible in a single location."
Mailing list for RPMfusion users.
Les RPM de Remi repository - (See http://rpms.famillecollet.com/) has been recommended on the mailing list and forum. Remi Collet maintains latest version of MySQL and PHP (backports of fedora RPM). Repo configs for EL6 i386 EL6 x86_64, EL5 i386, and EL5 x86_64 as well as EL4 are available. Suggest caution if using this repo due to replacement of core packages.
The Community Enterprise Linux Repository - (See ELRepo) Follow the ELRepo tiki article to install the elrepo-release package and import the GPG key. It currently has four channels and focuses on kmod driver packages to enhance hardware support (including filesystem, network, sound, webcam drivers).
- elrepo
elrepo is the default channel. The channel may be enabled in /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo or used with yum --enablerepo=elrepo (the recommended method).
- elrepo-testing
The elrepo-testing channel provides testing packages yet to be released to the main elrepo channel and is disabled by default. The channel may be enabled in /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo or used with yum --enablerepo=elrepo-testing (the recommended method).
- elrepo-kernel
The elrepo-kernel channel provides the latest stable mainline kernels from the Linux Kernel Archives configured for EL-{5|6} and is disabled by default. The packages are intentionally named kernel-ml so as not to conflict with the CentOS/EL-{5|6} kernels and, as such, they may be installed and updated alongside the regular kernel. Please see the kernel-ml page for further details and cautions about use of non-CentOS kernels. It may be enabled in the /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo file or used with yum --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel.
- elrepo-extras
The elrepo-extras channel provides packages that replace packages in CentOS or other compatible distros and is disabled by default. This will keep the main elrepo channel safe in terms of usage by not updating any distribution packages. See the announcement for details. It may be enabled in the /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo file or used with yum --enablerepo=elrepo-extras.
Mailing list for ELRepo users and ELRepo development.
The SerNet Samba 3 Repository - German site with Samba 3 packages for Centos 3, 4, and 5
Repo configs for 3, 4, and 5 are available. Some users have reported success with these packages but caution is advised.
Note: the structure for this repo has changed and there are now 3.2 3.3 3.4 and 3.5 trees. The current repo links point to the last.
Mike A. Harris Repository - Mike A. Harris maintains an EL5 repository which contains firefox 3.6 packages for EL5, as well as a small number of other packages. See http://mhrepo.co.cc for current repository information and instructions.
Mike strongly recommends using the supplied unversioned repos release rpm for auto-configuring this repository:
root@localhost:~# rpm -Uvh http://mhrepo.co.cc/pub/el/mhrepo-release.noarch.rpm
JPackage Repository - (See http://www.jpackage.org/index.php )
"The JPackage Project has two primary goals:
- To provide a coherent set of Java software packages for Linux, satisfying all quality requirements of other applications.
- To establish an efficient and robust policy for Java software packaging and installation.
We focus on free and open source software whenever possible. For convenience, we also provide non-free packages without the restricted source code.
Our RPMs are generic in that they should work on any RPM based Linux distribution (Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE, others). Other packaging format suggestions are welcome too. "
A repo file is provided.
Jason Litka - Utter Ramblings Repository - (See http://www.jasonlitka.com/yum-repository/) Updated web stack and other applications for EL4 and EL5 that will replace core packages. Includes apr, apr-util, freetds, httpd, libmcrypt, mhash, mod_evasive, mod_perl, mod_python, mod_security, mysql, mysqlclient10, mysqlclient14, pcre, perl-BSD-Resource, php, php-apc, php-eaccelerator, php-memcache, php-pear, php-xcache, subversion, tidy. Suggest caution if using this repo due to replacement of core packages.
IUS Community Repo - (See http://iuscommunity.org/ - http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-docs/2009-November/003730.html )
'IUS is a new third party repo for RHEL that provides the "latest upstream versions of PHP, Python, MySQL". It is sponsored by internal work at Rackspace (but officially unsupported).' See their Wiki Client Usage Guide to install the ius-release package to configure the repo.
Caution is suggested in using this repo as it will replace core packages. See also their FAQ which frankly discusses pros and cons.
Atomic Repo - (See http://www.atomicorp.com/downloads.html) Atomicorp has commercial products as well as free repositories with later version of PHP 5.3 and MySQL 5.1 and many other packages. Some additional packages that may not be available elsewhere include hunspell, snort, and zabbix. They also provide Plesk. Be particularly careful about the Atomic repo as they enable their repo by default when installed, and overwrite user changes in the configuration without notice when the release package is updated. Atomic will replace many core packages as configured when installed. Many CentOS users have had problems after enabling this repo, as a forum search will reveal. Repository definitions are available in atomic-release packages.
PostgreSQL RPM Building Project - Yum Repository - (See http://yum.postgresql.org/) The PostgreSQL RPM Building Project carries builds of several PostgreSQL versions for Fedora, RHEL, and derivatives, along with some related packages. This repository will replace core packages. They supply multiple release packages for yum for the various versions supported. Use with care.
An example of what NOT to do
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WARNING: Do NOT do this. |
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A person asked in the IRC channel about some external third-party 'yum' additional repository instructions. It is a bad idea to follow some external documents. A couple of examples of incorrect repo configs:
- Use of hard-coded version and architecture: 'baseurl=http: //ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/redhat/el4/en/i386/dries/RPMS' This hard codes both for '$releasever' and '$basearch'. Compare this, to the more proper: 'baseurl=http: //apt.sw.be/redhat/el$releasever/en/$basearch/dag'. The 'hard coded' approach limits it to only be 'correct' for CentOS 4 on an i386 platform.
- Mixing Fedora repositories with CentOS oriented repositories: Look for 'name=Fedora', vs. 'name=CentOS.(whatever)'. Fedora repositories are not likely to be compatible with CentOS. Repositories for other Enterprise Linux distros derived from the same upstream sources are more likely to be compatible, but should still be used with care.
Please do NOT follow such examples. Use a critical eye and some thought to see what is proposed before adding to (and possibly breaking) your system's 'yum' configuration.
