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What is the difference between yum update and yum upgrade, and when should I use one over the other?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 25 down vote accepted

yum upgrade forces the removal of obsolete packages, yum update may or may not also do this. From man yum:





The removal of obsolete packages can be risky, as it may remove packages that you use.

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Even more detail on ServerFault here: serverfault.com/a/298158/88886 –  degenerate Jul 2 at 21:27

yum upgrade and yum update will perform the same function that update to the latest current version of package.

But the difference is Upgrade will delete obsolete packages, while update will preserve them.

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