Rocky Linux Repositories
There are several repositories that are provided by Rocky Linux and may differ between major releases. There are also community approved repositories as well, installable typically from the extras repository.
About 'enabled' and 'disabled' repository configuration files¶
Please read man 5 dnf.conf, in particular the section of enabled under the REPO section. A line containing enabled=0 or enabled=1 will disable or enable a repository. This can also be modified using dnf config-manager --set-enabled or --set-disabled. When this is done, it is recommended to run dnf clean all.
Version Policy¶
During a Rocky Linux minor release lifecycle as a package receives updates, the previous version will coexist in the repositories to allow a user to downgrade in case of a regression or other use cases (such as security only updates). Upon new minor release, all previous updates/versions that are not the latest are not carried over.
Rocky Linux 9 does not currently support this policy and can be expected in a future Rocky Linux 9 version. Please see Peridot Issue #18.
A more detailed explanation of the version policy can be found in our Version Guide.
Notes on: Difference between X and X.Y in mirrors¶
You may notice that on mirrors or our primary download location that there are X and X.Y directories. Rocky Linux sets the releasever dnf variable to the major version (eg 8, 9) rather than a minor version (8.6, 9.0, and so on). This effectively means that it will ask the mirror manager or configured baseurl for that version, which will always point to the latest available release at a given time. This helps simplify the user experience when installing software and updating systems throughout the life of a release.
In the event a new release is available, the symlink is changed to point to the new directory, and mirror manager also undergoes changes to accomodate the new release, which should be transparent to most users.
Base Repositories¶
Each major release has a set of repositories that come default with the distribution. Below is a list of common repositories for each major release, including their repo id.
| Repository | repoid | Rocky 8 | Rocky 9 | Enabled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BaseOS | baseos | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AppStream | appstream | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PowerTools | powertools | Yes | No | No |
| CRB | crb | No | Yes | No |
| HighAvailability | ha (8) / highavailibility | Yes | Yes | No |
| ResilientStorage | rs (8) / resilientstorage | Yes | Yes | No |
Notes on: CRB¶
CRB is "Code Ready Builder" - PowerTools was a carryover from CentOS, which is still the equivalent of CRB in RHEL. crb will be the repository name going forward in Rocky Linux and other derivatives.
Notes on: Lack of "updates" repo¶
In older major versions, it was normal to have an "updates" repo. Fedora for example still follows this. However, in EL8, EL9, and likely so on, there is no "updates" repository. This means all updates happen as is in the same repository. So if bash receives an update, it will land in baseos as there is no updates repository.
Extra Repositories¶
There are extra repositories offered by Rocky Linux.
| Repository | repoid | Rocky 8 | Rocky 9 | Enabled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extras | extras | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Plus | plus | Yes | Yes | No |
| RT (real time) | rt | Yes | Yes | No |
| NFV | nfv | Yes | Yes | No |
| SAP / SAP HANA | sap / saphana | No | Yes | No |
| Devel / devel | devel | Yes | Yes | No |
| rockyrpi | altarch-rockyrpi | Yes* | Yes* | No |
Notes on: Extras¶
This repository contains packages that provide some additional functionality to Rocky without breaking upstream compatibility. For example, rpaste used for sending logs, configuration, or system information to our paste bin.
These are not tested by upstream nor available in the upstream product.
Notes on: Plus¶
This repository contains packages that either A) replace a core component via patched functionality, B) build a component that was originally exclusive for one architecture (eg open-vm-tools built for x86_64 but not aarch64 in Rocky 8) or C) providing packages that were built but not traditionally provided by upstream, and requested to be available by the community.
Packages that fall under A and B will have a .plus added to their version tag. These are not tested nor available in the upstream product.
Notes on: Devel¶
The devel (development) repository are packages that are not normally provided in the base nor extra repositories for the purposes of providing dependencies or devel packages that may not be provided by upstream. In some releases, this repository may contain all packages that are provided for Rocky Linux.
This repository should only be enabled for package building/development purposes and shouldn't be permanently enabled.
Notes on: rockyrpi¶
The rockyrpi repository is being/has been moved to a SIG repository. It'll no longer be found in the base Rocky Linux repository directories in the future. All SIG repositories can be found here
Vault¶
Previous releases, including ISOs and other images, are typically moved into a vault area of our tier 0 mirror once a new minor release version is available for at least a week. The vault can be found here.
Note that these versions are not supported and not recommended for general use.
Community Approved Repositories¶
As with Enterprise Linux and Fedora, there are additional community approved repositories for Rocky Linux. Below are repositories that are approved by Rocky Linux as well as the community.
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) - EPEL is by for the most commonly used repository for Enterprise Linux. EPEL provides rebuilds of Fedora packages for every supported enterprise linux. Packages in this repository do not replace the base. You can install EPEL by running dnf install epel-release and the package will be installed from the extras repository. The package will automatically have EPEL enabled. Support for EPEL can be found in #epel on Libera. |
Community Enterprise Linux Repository (ELRepo) - ELRepo focuses on newer kernels and kmod driver packages to enhance hardware support for currently supported Enterprise Linux versions. This includes display, filesystem, network, storage drivers. You can install the necessary repo files by running dnf install elrepo-release. Note that the kernel repositories will have to be enabled. |
RPM Fusion - RPM Fusion provides software that the Fedora Project or Red Hat does not want to ship in Enterprise Linux and Fedora. These repositories do rely on EPEL. The policy is to not replace EPEL nor base packages. The free repository can be installed by running dnf install rpmfusion-free-release. |
Remi Repository - Remi maintains a large collection of RPMs, including latest versions of PHP, among other things. His FAQ can be found here. This is a collection of repositories. Using the -safe series of repositories will ensure that nothing from the base will be replaced or overwritten. However, be aware that these repositories do not play well with other third party repositories. You will need to use caution as you enable more repositories on your system. |
GhettoForge - GhettoForge provides packages not in other third party repositories. Packages that overwrite the base would be in the gf-plus repository. Please see usage for more information. |
| Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) - TDE provides Enterprise Linux packages for a KDE 3.5 style desktop environment. As of this writing, EL8 repositories exist. You can find TDE support resources here. |
| ZFS On Linux - The ZFS on Linux project is an implementation of OpenZFS, designed to work in a Linux environment. While this filesystem is very popular, it receives no testing or support from Rocky Release Engineering or Testing. Use at your own risk. |
Upstream centos-release-* - In the extras repository, there are centos-release-* packages that provide additional repositories from the Special Interest Groups of CentOS. As they are available in extras and should work on Rocky Linux, they are considered approved and community supported. |
Notes on: EPEL¶
Using EPEL requires that the CRB or PowerTools repository is enabled on your system, as some EPEL packages depend on packages from that repo. There are multiple ways to enable the repository:
-
Using
dnf- Rocky 8:
dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools - Rocky 9+:
dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
- Rocky 8:
-
Modifying the repo files and setting
enabled=1- Rocky 8:
/etc/yum.repos.d/Rocky-PowerTools.repounder[powertools] - Rocky 9+:
/etc/yum.repos.d/rocky.repounder[crb]
- Rocky 8:
-
Running
dnf install epel-releaseand then runningcrb enable
We recommend checking out the EPEL Quickstart Guide for more information.
Notes on: Unlisted Repositories¶
If there is a repository that you use (or maintain) and you do not see it here, it is likely that we may not know of it. Unfortunately, this happens. If there are popular repositories that are used in the Enterprise Linux community that should be added to the list, you may drop us a line in Mattermost or IRC.