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How to Set or Unset Package Management

Last modified: December 17, 2021

Note:

This document was previously titled How to Set or Unset RPM Management. Beginning in version 98, we added .deb packages to our codebase to allow cPanel & WHM installations on Ubuntu® systems.

Overview

If you do not want cPanel & WHM’s rpm.versions system to manage a package, you can set its target to an unmanaged state. This document provides steps for how to set targets to both the managed and unmanaged states.

Common unmanaged package problems

You may experience problems with certain services if cPanel & WHM does not manage them:

  • The rpm.versions system does not update unmanaged packages. These packages require manual upgrades and maintenance.

  • If you upgrade a server with unmanaged FTP targets, problems may occur in cPanel’s FTP-related interfaces. For more information, read our How to Restore Missing FTP Interfaces in cPanel documentation.

  • Unmanaged targets may become upgrade blockers for a future version of cPanel & WHM.

Why is my target set to unmanaged

Warning:

We strongly recommend that you allow the rpm.versions system to manage all targets.

The targets for the following services may be in the unmanaged state, even if you did not change them:

  • Bandmin — bandmin

    Warning:

    We removed the Bandmin feature from cPanel & WHM version 58. The Bandmin feature only exists in cPanel & WHM version 56 and earlier.

  • Courier — courier

    Warning:

    We removed the Courier mail server in cPanel & WHM version 54. The Courier mail server only exists for cPanel & WHM version 11.52 and earlier.

  • Dovecot — dovecot

    Note:

    We removed this target in cPanel & WHM version 58. The exim target controls Dovecot.

  • FTP — proftpd and pure-ftpd

  • NSD — nsd

    Warning:

    We deprecated the MyDNS and NSD nameservers in cPanel & WHM version 78 and plan to remove them in a future release. We strongly recommend that you migrate the server to PowerDNS. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan.

What is an rpm.versions target?

The rpm.versions system uses target settings. This determines whether the system will install or uninstall a target’s specific packages. The /usr/local/cpanel/etc/rpm.versions file contains the target_settings section. This contains the cPanel-provided default status for each target.

For example, cPanel provides a distribution of Clam AntiVirus Scanner (ClamAV®). This consists of the following packages:

  • cpanel-clamav
  • cpanel-clamav-virusdefs
  • cpanel-perl-522-File-Scan-ClamAV

In this example, the /usr/local/cpanel/etc/rpm.versions file’s setting for the clamav target controls the ClamAV packages. It also determines how the rpm.versions system manages these components. For more information, read our rpm.versions file documentation.

List of targets

This lists the associated targets for cPanel & WHM services:

  • Third-party software — 3rdparty

    Warning:

    Never set this target to unmanaged. It could cause serious problems on your server.

  • Analog Stats — analog

  • AWStats — awstats

  • ClamAV Scanner — clamav

  • Composer — composer

  • cPanel privilege management — cpanel-wrap

    Warning:

    Never set this target to unmanaged. It could cause serious problems on your server.

  • cPanel — cpanel

    Warning:

    Never set this target to the unmanaged state. This can cause serious problems on your server.

  • cPanel Developer Tools — cpanel-devel

    Note:

    This controls the files that allow you to rebuild certain packages provided by cPanel.

  • Dovecot — dovecot

    Note:

    We removed this target in cPanel & WHM version 58. The exim target controls Dovecot.

  • Exim — exim

    Warning:

    Only experienced users should set this target to unmanaged. If you do not understand the effects of the change, it can cause serious problems on your server.

  • FTP — proftpd or pure-ftpd

  • Git — git

  • Horde — horde

  • Mailman — mailman

  • Munin — munin

  • MyDNS — mydns

  • NSD — nsd

  • Obsolete services — obsolete

  • Passive OS Fingerprinting — p0f

  • PHPMyAdmin — phpmy

  • Pluggable Authentication Modules — pam

    Note:

    We added this target in cPanel & WHM version 72.

  • Perl 5.22 — perl522

    Warning:
    • Never set this target to the unmanaged state. This can cause serious problems on your server.
    • We removed this target in cPanel & WHM version 64.

  • Perl 5.24 — perl524

    Warning:

    Never set this target to the unmanaged state. This can cause serious problems on your server.

  • Perl 5.26 — perl526

    Warning:

    Never set this target to the unmanaged state. This can cause serious problems on your server.

  • Perl 5.28 — perl528

    Warning:

    Never set this target to the unmanaged state. This can cause serious problems on your server.

    Note:

    We added this target in cPanel & WHM version 78.

  • PHP — cpanel-php56, cpanel-php72, cpanel-php73, cpanel-php74

    Note:
    • We added the cpanel-php74 target in cPanel & WHM version 102.
    • We added the cpanel-php73 target in cPanel & WHM version 84 and deprecated this target in cPanel & WHM version 102.
    • We added the cpanel-php72 target and removed the cpanel-php56 target in cPanel & WHM version 76.

  • PowerDNS — powerdns

  • Roundcube Webmail — roundcube

  • cPanel Site Publisher — sitepublisher

  • SQLite — sqlite

  • SquirrelMail — cpanel-squirrelmail

    Warning:
    • We deprecated SquirrelMail and its functionality in cPanel & WHM version 76.
    • We removed SquirrelMail in cPanel & WHM version 78.
    • When you upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 78 or later, the system will remove this target.

  • System update — updatenow

  • cPanel user interface — userinterface

  • Webalizer — webalizer

Set a target to unmanaged

To set a target to the unmanaged state, perform the following steps:

  1. Run the following command. In this example, service represents the name of the service that you want to set to the unmanaged state: 

    /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --edit target_settings.service unmanaged
    Note:

    To set FTP services to the unmanaged state, you must run this command for both the pure-ftpd and proftpd targets.

  2. Confirm that the target is now unmanaged. Open the following file in your preferred text editor: 

    /var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions
    Notice the target’s unmanaged value. For example, if you use the roundcube target, this file might look like the following example: 
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    file_format:
  version: 2
install_targets: {}
rpm_groups: {}
rpm_locations: {}
srpm_sub_packages: {}
srpm_versions: {}
target_settings:
  cpanel-devel: installed
  roundcube: unmanaged
url_templates: {}

Return a target to managed

To return an unmanaged target to the managed state, perform the following steps:

  1. Run the following command. In this example, target represents the name of the target that you want to set to the managed state: 

    /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --del target_settings.service
    Note:
    • This script’s --del option returns a target to its default managed state. This can be either an installed or uninstalled state.
    • To set FTP services to the managed state, you must run this command for both the pure-ftpd and proftpd targets.

  2. Confirm that the target is no longer unmanaged. Open the following file in your preferred text editor: 

    /var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions
    Notice that the file no longer lists the target in the target_settings hash. For example, if you use the roundcube target, this file might look like the following example: 
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    file_format:
  version: 2
install_targets: {}
rpm_groups: {}
rpm_locations: {}
srpm_sub_packages: {}
srpm_versions: {}
target_settings:
  cpanel-devel: installed
url_templates: {}

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