Package Manager Basics

Last modified: 2025 February 13

Overview

Package managers allow you to easily update, install, and remove software packages on your system. Package managers use repositories to manage the packages that you install or uninstall. They also handle any dependencies for packages that you wish to use. If you set your package manager to automatically update your system’s packages, you will not need to run the updates manually.

You can configure your system’s update schedule in WHM’s Update Preferences interface (WHM » Home » Server Configuration » Update Preferences).

cPanel & WHM ensures that installed packages do not conflict with one another.

How package managers use their directories

Usually, each package manager’s directory owns a file that contains one or more configuration blocks. These blocks define the package manager’s available repositories and ensure that they allow third-party software. You do not need to edit this file.

Package manager by operating system

Different operating systems use different package managers to manage their repositories.

Operating System	Package Manager
CentOS	`yum`
AlmaLinux OS	`dnf`
Rocky Linux™	`dnf`
Ubuntu®	`apt`

CentOS repositories

CentOS uses yum to manage the packages in its repositories.

The following preconfigured repositories exist on CentOS systems:

base
updates
extras

The system stores yum repositories in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory.

To access a new repository, download the .repo file from the desired third-party to the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory and then run the yum update command.

AlmaLinux OS and Rocky Linux repositories

AlmaLinux OS and Rocky Linux™ use dnf to manage the packages in their repositories.

The following preconfigured repositories exist on AlmaLinux systems:

baseos
appstream
extras

The following preconfigured repositories exist on Rocky Linux systems:

baseos
appstream
extras

The system stores dnf repositories in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory.

To access a new repository, download the .repo file from the desired third-party repository to the /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory and then run the dnf upgrade command.

Ubuntu repositories

Ubuntu® uses apt to manage the packages in its repositories.

The following preconfigured repositories exist on Ubuntu systems:

main
universe
multiverse
restricted
partner

To access any other repositories, download the .list file to the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory and then run the apt update command.

Package management in EasyApache 4

EasyApache 4 packages conform to the following rules:

In the EasyApache 4 repositories, cPanel & WHM-provided packages use the ea- prefix or namespace.
EasyApache 4 provides packages in both RPM and .deb format.

Manage packages on CentOS systems

To manage packages on a CentOS system, use the yum command.

Note:

In the following table, example represents the name of the package that you wish to install.

Command	Description
`yum install example`	Install the `example` package from a repository to your system.
`yum erase example` or `yum remove example`	Uninstall the `example` package and any dependencies.
`yum update`	Update all of the packages on your system.
`yum update example`	Update the `example` package on your system.
`yum upgrade`	Upgrade the packages on your system. Note: This command also removes any obsolete packages on your system.

For more information about the yum command, read the yum documentation.

Manage packages on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux systems

To manage packages on an AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux system, use the dnf command.

Note:

In the following table, example represents the name of the package that you wish to install.

Command	Description
`dnf install example`	Install the `example` package from a repository to your system.
`dnf remove example`	Uninstall the `example` package and any dependencies.
`dnf upgrade`	Update all of the packages on your system. Note: This command replaces `dnf update` and also removes any obsolete packages from your system.
`dnf upgrade example`	Update the `example` package on your system.

For more information about the dnf command, read the dnf documentation.

Manage packages on Ubuntu systems

To manage packages on an Ubuntu system, use the apt command.

Note:

In the following table, example represents the name of the package that you wish to install.

Command	Description
`apt install --purge example`	Install the `example` package from a repository to your system.
`apt purge example`	Uninstall the `example` package, all configuration files, and any dependencies.
`apt update`	Download the package information from all configured repositories.
`apt upgrade --purge`	Install any available upgrades for packages on your system.

The --purge option ensures that the system removes any unneeded package dependencies and any non-binary files that the package owns. If you run the install or upgrade commands without the --purge option, then apt will not remove these files, and errors may occur.

Warning:

Do not hold any EasyApache 4 packages on Ubuntu systems. When you hold a package, it prevents the system from updating it. If you hold an EasyApache 4 package, you must manually resolve any error messages.

For more information about the apt command, read the apt documentation.

Software collections

We use the Software Collections Library (SCL) on non-Ubuntu systems to maintain packages that support multiple versions of software, which are primarily PHP packages.

Each Software Collection area uses its own package namespace. Because of this, two package namespaces will exist for each version of PHP. For example, to install the -soap extension for PHP 7.4, you must install the ea-php74-php-soap package. You cannot install only the php-soap package.

For more information, read Princeton University’s Software Collections documentation and our The scl Utility documentation.