How to Set or Unset Package Management
Last modified: December 17, 2021
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
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
andpure-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
orpure-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.
- Never set this target to the
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 thecpanel-php56
target in cPanel & WHM version 76.
- We added the
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:
Run the following command. In this example,
service
represents the name of the service that you want to set to theunmanaged
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 thepure-ftpd
andproftpd
targets.Confirm that the target is now unmanaged. Open the following file in your preferred text editor:
Notice the target’s/var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions
unmanaged
value. For example, if you use theroundcube
target, this file might look like the following example:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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:
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 thepure-ftpd
andproftpd
targets.
- This script’s
Confirm that the target is no longer unmanaged. Open the following file in your preferred text editor:
Notice that the file no longer lists the target in the/var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions
target_settings
hash. For example, if you use theroundcube
target, this file might look like the following example:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
file_format: version: 2 install_targets: {} rpm_groups: {} rpm_locations: {} srpm_sub_packages: {} srpm_versions: {} target_settings: cpanel-devel: installed url_templates: {}