What is EPEL

EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is an open-source and free community-based repository project from the Fedora team which provides 100% high-quality add-on software packages for Linux distribution including RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux.

Why Do We Use the EPEL Repository?

  1. Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum and DNF.
  2. Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
  3. It does not provide any core duplicate packages and has no compatibility issues.
  4. All EPEL packages are maintained by the Fedora repo.

How to Install EPEL Repository on RHEL 9 Systems

To install the EPEL repository on any RHEL-based distributions, log in to your server instance as a root user and run the commands as explained below as per your release version.

Install EPEL Repo on RHEL 9

# subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-$(arch)-rpms
# dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

Install EPEL Repo on CentOS Stream 9

# dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
# dnf install epel-release epel-next-release

Install EPEL Repo on AlmaLinux 9

# dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
# dnf install epel-release

How to Install EPEL Repository on RHEL 8 Systems

To install the EPEL repository on RHEL 8 based release systems, use:

Install EPEL Repo on RHEL 9

# subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-$(arch)-rpms
# dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Install EPEL Repo on CentOS Stream 8

# dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
# dnf install epel-release

Install EPEL Repo on Rocky/AlmaLinux 8

# dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
# dnf install epel-release

How to Install EPEL Repository on RHEL 7 Systems

Install EPEL Repo on RHEL 7

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-*-optional-rpms \
                           --enable rhel-*-extras-rpms \
                           --enable rhel-ha-for-rhel-*-server-rpms
# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 7

# yum install epel-release

Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 6.x

# yum install epel-release

How Do I Verify EPEL Repo?

Now update the software packages and verify the installation of the EPEL repository using the following commands.

# yum update
# rpm -qa | grep epel

Verify Epel Repo Installation

You can also verify that the EPEL repository is enabled on the system by listing all active repositories using the following command.

# yum repolist

List Yum Repositories

To list the software packages that constitute the EPEL repository, run the command.

# dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available
OR
# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available

List Packages Available from Epel Repo

Alternatively, you can use the following grep command to search for individual package names as shown.

# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available | grep 'htop'
OR
# dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available | grep 'monitorix'

Search Packages in EPEL Repo

How Do I Use EPEL Repo to Install Packages?

Once the EPEL repository has been successfully installed, a package can be installed using the command.

# dnf --enablerepo="epel" install <package_name>
OR
# yum --enablerepo="epel" install <package_name>

For example, to search and install a package called htop – an interactive Linux process-viewer, run the following command.

# yum --enablerepo=epel info htop

Find Package Info

Now, to install the Htop package, the command will be.

# yum --enablerepo=epel install htop

Install a Package from Epel Repo

Note: The EPEL configuration file is located under /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo.

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