Last modified: 2025 September 24

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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?

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

• FTP — proftpd and pure-ftpd
• NSD — nsd
  Warning:

  We removed the NSD nameserver in cPanel & WHM version 106 and this target in cPanel & WHM version 112. 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-123-file-scan-clamav

  Note:

  123 represents the server’s cPanel Perl version.

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
  Warning:

  We removed this target in cPanel & WHM version 130. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan.

• 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.

• cPanel privilege management — cpanel-wrap
  Warning:

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

• 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
• Mailman — mailman
• Munin — munin
• MyDNS — mydns
  Warning:

  We removed the MyDNS nameserver in cPanel & WHM version 106 and this target in cPanel & WHM version 112. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan.

• NSD — nsd
  Warning:

  We removed the NSD nameserver in cPanel & WHM version 106 and this target in cPanel & WHM version 112. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan.

• Obsolete services — obsolete
• Passive OS Fingerprinting — p0f
• PHPMyAdmin — phpmy
• Pluggable Authentication Modules — pam
• Perl 5.32 — perl532
  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 112.
• Perl 5.36 — perl536
  Warning:

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

• Perl 5.42 — perl542
  Warning:

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

• PHP — cpanel-php81, cpanel-php83 , cpanel-php84
  Note:

  • We added the cpanel-php84 target in cPanel & WHM version 130.
  • We added the cpanel-php83 target in cPanel & WHM version 120.
  • We added the cpanel-php81 target in cPanel & WHM version 110.
• PowerDNS — powerdns
• Roundcube Webmail — roundcube
• cPanel Site Publisher — sitepublisher
• SQLite — sqlite
• 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:

   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:

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:

   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: {}