In this article, you will learn how to install and enable EPEL repository on CentOS 8.x, CentOS 7.x and CentOS 6.x releases to install additional standard open-source software packages by using YUM and DNF package manager.
What is EPEL
EPEL (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 distribution including RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CentOS, and Scientific Linux.
EPEL project is not a part of RHEL/CentOS but it is designed for major Linux distributions by providing lots of open source packages like networking tools, sysadmin tools, programming, monitoring and so on. Most of the EPEL packages are maintained by Fedora repo.
Why we Use the EPEL Repository?
- Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum and DNF.
- Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
- It does not provide any core duplicate packages and no compatibility issues.
- All EPEL packages are maintained by Fedora repo.
How to Install EPEL Repository on CentOS Server
To install EPEL repository on any CentOS releases, log in to your CentOS server instance as root user and run the commands as explained below as per your release version.
How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 8.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # yum install epel-release

How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 7.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # yum install epel-release

How to Install EPEL Repo on CentOS 6.x
# yum search epel-release # yum info epel-release # 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

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

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

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'

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

Now, to install Htop package, the command will be.
# yum --enablerepo=epel install htop

Note: The EPEL configuration file is located under /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo.
Conclusion
In this article, you learned how to install the EPEL repository on CentOS 8.x, CentOS 7.x, and CentOS 6.x releases. We welcome you to try it out and share your feedback in the comment section below.
Modular dependency problem:
Problem: conflicting requests
– nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBI:1.641:8010020191113222731:16b3ab4d-0.x86_64
=================================== Name Exactly Matched: epel-release
epel-release.noarch : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux repository configuration
[[email protected] mnt]# yum info epel-release
Modular dependency problem:
Problem: conflicting requests
– nothing provides module(perl:5.26) needed by module perl-DBI:1.641:8010020191113222731:16b3ab4d-0.x86_64
Installed Packages
Name : epel-release
Version : 8
Release : 8.el8
Architecture : noarch
Size : 32 k
Source : epel-release-8-8.el8.src.rpm
Repository : @System
From repo : epel
Summary : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux repository configuration
URL : http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel
License : GPLv2
Description : This package contains the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository
: GPG key as well as configuration for yum.
[[email protected] mnt]# yum install epel-release
Error: There are no enabled repositories in “/etc/yum.repos.d”, “/etc/yum/repos.d”, “/etc/distro.repos.d”.
[[email protected] mnt]#
I’m unable to install the epel file with the wget command, below is the error I get in my struggle to enable EPEL repo on my RHEL 7.4 server.
Even though I have internet access on the box.
--2019-11-19 15:37:19-- (try: 3) http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-5.noarch.rpm
.Connecting to dl.fedoraproject.org (dl.fedoraproject.org)|209.132.181.23|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting a response... Read error (Connection timed out) in headers.
Retrying
Any Troubleshooting tips for the above.
@Abdul,
Just install the EPEL using the following command.
I need help, please. I have attempted the install of the epel repo, it says it’s already there, but whenever I do a
yum update
, I get a bunch of thesehttp://mirror.grid.uchicago.edu/pub/linux/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found
https://mirror.umd.edu/fedora/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
https://mirrors.sonic.net/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
https://muug.ca/mirror/fedora-epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
https://ord.mirror.rackspace.com/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
http://mirror.nodesdirect.com/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found
https://mirror.steadfastnet.com/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
http://mirror.rnet.missouri.edu/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found
http://fedora-epel.mirror.lstn.net/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found
https://d2lzkl7pfhq30w.cloudfront.net/pub/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
http://mirror.oss.ou.edu/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found
https://dfw.mirror.rackspace.com/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
https://mirror.dal.nexril.net/fedora-epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
https://pubmirror2.math.uh.edu/fedora-buffet/epel/7/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml.asc: [Errno 14] HTTPS Error 404 - Not Found
I don’t actually see the files when I navigate to those locations separately. Can you help, please?
Thank you!
Sondra
@Sondra,
The following commands will fix this issue..
If you still see errors, make sure to have repo_gpgcheck is set to 0 in yum.conf file for CentOS.
Thank you! Turning off the repo gpg check worked. In regards to the security posture of epel, do you think they’ll fix it upstream, soon? Or do I need to get in on the Wednesday meeting to report that I think there’s a change that needs to be made?
@Sondra,
Hopefully, they fix it soon in the next release, or you can report to them about the same.
Please, I keel seeing this error after enabling EPEL repository so I can be able to install “terminator”. How can I fix this?
@Chinda,
You need to active or enable Red Hat subscription to install software packages. Please read this article to enable subscription:
How to Install RedHat Subscription on RHEL 7
How to Install RedHat Subscription on RHEL 8
Very good article, but don’t you miss one step of editing epel.repo file. By default, the baseline has
#
at beginning need to uncomment it in order to work repository.Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* epel: del-repos.extreme-ix.org
Package net-tools-2.0-0.17.20131004git.el7.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Package bridge-utils-1.5-9.el7.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
–> Running transaction check
—> Package easy-rsa.noarch 0:3.0.3-1.el7 will be installed
—> Package openvpn.x86_64 0:2.4.6-1.el7 will be installed
–> Processing Dependency: libcrypto.so.10(OPENSSL_1.0.2)(64bit) for package: openvpn-2.4.6-1.el7.x86_64
–> Processing Dependency: libpkcs11-helper.so.1()(64bit) for package: openvpn-2.4.6-1.el7.x86_64
–> Processing Dependency: liblz4.so.1()(64bit) for package: openvpn-2.4.6-1.el7.x86_64
–> Running transaction check
—> Package lz4.x86_64 0:1.7.3-1.el7 will be installed
—> Package openvpn.x86_64 0:2.4.6-1.el7 will be installed
–> Processing Dependency: libcrypto.so.10(OPENSSL_1.0.2)(64bit) for package: openvpn-2.4.6-1.el7.x86_64
—> Package pkcs11-helper.x86_64 0:1.11-3.el7 will be installed
–> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: openvpn-2.4.6-1.el7.x86_64 (epel)
Requires: libcrypto.so.10(OPENSSL_1.0.2)(64bit)
You could try using –skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va –nofiles –nodigest
[[email protected] ~]#
@Agung,
Hope this thread will help you to resolve Openssl Package error while installing OpenVPN.
https://serverfault.com/questions/879950/how-to-resolve-openssl-package-error-while-installing-nginx
Please resolve my Issue.
[[email protected] ~]# yum install cacti
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: repo.inara.pk
* epel: sg.fedora.ipserverone.com
* extras: repo.inara.pk
* updates: repo.inara.pk
Resolving Dependencies
–> Running transaction check
—> Package cacti.noarch 0:1.1.19-2.el6 will be installed
–> Processing Dependency: php-imap for package: cacti-1.1.19-2.el6.noarch
–> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: cacti-1.1.19-2.el6.noarch (epel)
Requires: php-imap
You could try using –skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va –nofiles –nodigest
@Anis,
Try these following installation instructions to install Cacti on CentOS 6.
Download latest epel-release rpm from
Install epel-release rpm:
Install cacti rpm package:
Sir, Please solve my problem.
I am using RHEL7 inside the VMVare. I am getting the same error while enabling the EPEL repository.
I have installed “epel-release-7-11.noarch”, Now i am updating my repository but i am not able to do it.
I can’t use internet inside the VMVare.
When i run command for enabling epel repository “yum update curl nss nss-util nspr” still it not able show repo of epel.
When i run this command “yum-config-manager –enable epel” still after run that when i run yum repolist, still it not showing me desired result.
Please solve my problem. So that i can use NRPE on my client machine.
It would be helpful to me.
@Sumit,
Just type the following command to install epel from the default repositories.
Nice article, If we do not have internet on the server. How can we install and configure *epel*? Suppose my desktop is windows and I’ll connect to the server through putty and my servers are in private network. Is there any possible way that we can download all epel rpms and do some kind of local repo config?
fatal: unable to access ‘https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git/’: Peer reports incompatible or unsupported protocol version.
while get the repo from latest source we are getting the above error in redhat7.
@Manikandan,
Some old NSS is used for SSL within cURL library when you download any package from the web, so it’s rejected. In such case, updating curl combined with nss update will help you..
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your valuable advise,