The EPEL repository (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is an open source and free community based repository project from Fedora team, which provides 100% high quality add-on software packages for Linux distributions.
The following article describes how to install and enable the EPEL repository on CentOS-8/7/6, how to verify the EPEL installation and how to remove it, if needed.
Install EPEL Repo on CentOS-8/7/6
To install the EPEL repository on CentOS-8/7/6, simply type:
# yum install epel-release
For some reason it can be impossible to install the EPEL repository using yum.
This can happen if, for example, the CentOS Extras repository is disabled.
In such situation yum may say:
No package epel-release available
In this case you can manually download and install the epel-release packedge with one of the below commands, depending on your system’s version.
Install the EPEL repository on CentOS-8:
# rpm -ivh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
Install the EPEL repository on CentOS-7:
# rpm -ivh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
Install the EPEL repository on CentOS-6:
# rpm -ivh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm
Verify The EPEL Installation
Enabled By Default: The EPEL repository is enabled by default and its settings can be found in /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo.
To ensure that the EPEL repository is installed, search for it in the list of yum repositories:
# yum repolist | grep -i "epel\|repo id"
Sample output:
repo id repo name status *epel Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 2651
Cool Tip: Can’t find the usual tools like ifconfig in the “Minimal” installation of CentOS? Just upgrade it to “Base” with yum! Read more →
Remove The EPEL Repository
You can simply remove the EPEL repository, by running:
# yum remove epel-release
Or you can find the EPEL package name using the rpm -qa command:
# rpm -qa | grep epel
And delete is as follows:
# rpm -e epel-release-x-x.noarch
Hi,
I have two epel repositories provided by another IT dept., They just d/w from their satellite and put it on a share. However, they don’t seem to know which epel is which. One is called epel27 and the other epel28. I should presume these are for rhel7 and rhel8 respectively, but I cannot be certain. These could just be different epel releases for rhel7. How could I find out which one is for which O/S release?
Regards, S