How to Enable EPEL Repository on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 Server

EPEL Stands for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, it is a free and opensource additional packages repository available for CentOS and RHEL servers. As the name suggests, EPEL repository provides extra and additional packages which are not available in the default package repositories of CentOS 8 and RHEL 8.

In this article we will demonstrate how to enable and use epel repository on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 Server.

Prerequisites of EPEL Repository

• Minimal CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 Server
• Root or sudo admin privileges
• Internet Connection

Install and Enable EPEL Repository on RHEL 8.x Server

Login or ssh to your RHEL 8.x server and execute the following dnf command to install EPEL rpm package,

[root@linuxtechi-rhel8 ~]# dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm -y

Output of above command would be something like below,

Once epel rpm package is installed successfully then it will automatically enable and configure its yum / dnf repository.  Run following dnf or yum command to verify whether EPEL repository is enabled or not,

[root@linuxtechi-rhel8 ~]# dnf repolist epel
Or
[root@linuxtechi-rhel8 ~]# dnf repolist epel -v

Install and Enable EPEL Repository on CentOS 8.x Server

Login or ssh to your CentOS 8 server and execute following dnf or yum command to install ‘epel-release‘ rpm package. In CentOS 8 server, epel rpm package is available in its default package repository.

[root@linuxtechi ~]# dnf install epel-release -y
Or
[root@linuxtechi ~]# yum install epel-release -y

Execute the following commands to verify the status of epel repository on CentOS 8 server,

 [root@linuxtechi ~]# dnf repolist epel
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:03 ago on Sun 13 Oct 2019 04:18:05 AM BST.
repo id                                    repo name                                                                          status
*epel                                      Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                                     1,977
[root@linuxtechi ~]#
[root@linuxtechi ~]# dnf repolist epel -v
……………………
Repo-id      : epel
Repo-name    : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64
Repo-status  : enabled
Repo-revision: 1570844166
Repo-updated : Sat 12 Oct 2019 02:36:32 AM BST
Repo-pkgs    : 1,977
Repo-size    : 2.1 G
Repo-metalink: https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-8&arch=x86_64&infra=stock&content=centos
  Updated    : Sun 13 Oct 2019 04:28:24 AM BST
Repo-baseurl : rsync://repos.del.extreme-ix.org/epel/8/Everything/x86_64/ (34 more)
Repo-expire  : 172,800 second(s) (last: Sun 13 Oct 2019 04:28:24 AM BST)
Repo-filename: /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
Total packages: 1,977
[root@linuxtechi ~]#

Above command’s output confirms that we have successfully enabled epel repo. Let’s perform some basic operations on EPEL repo.

List all available packages from epel repository

If you want to list all the packages from epel repository then run the following dnf command,

[root@linuxtechi ~]#  dnf repository-packages epel list
……………
Last metadata expiration check: 0:38:18 ago on Sun 13 Oct 2019 04:28:24 AM BST.
Installed Packages
epel-release.noarch                                           8-6.el8                                             @epel
Available Packages
BackupPC.x86_64                                               4.3.1-2.el8                                         epel
BackupPC-XS.x86_64                                            0.59-3.el8                                          epel
CGSI-gSOAP.x86_64                                             1.3.11-7.el8                                        epel
CGSI-gSOAP-devel.x86_64                                       1.3.11-7.el8                                        epel
Field3D.x86_64                                                1.7.2-16.el8                                        epel
Field3D-devel.x86_64                                          1.7.2-16.el8                                        epel
GraphicsMagick.x86_64                                         1.3.33-1.el8                                        epel
GraphicsMagick-c++.x86_64                                     1.3.33-1.el8                                        epel
…………………………
zabbix40-web-mysql.noarch                                     4.0.12-1.el8                                        epel
zabbix40-web-pgsql.noarch                                     4.0.12-1.el8                                        epel
zerofree.x86_64                                               1.1.1-3.el8                                         epel
zimg.x86_64                                                   2.8-4.el8                                           epel
zimg-devel.x86_64                                             2.8-4.el8                                           epel
zstd.x86_64                                                   1.4.2-1.el8                                         epel
zvbi.x86_64                                                   0.2.35-9.el8                                        epel
zvbi-devel.x86_64                                             0.2.35-9.el8                                        epel
zvbi-fonts.noarch                                             0.2.35-9.el8                                        epel
[root@linuxtechi ~]#

Search Package from EPEL Repo

Let’s assume if we want to search Zabbix package in epel repository, execute the following dnf command,

[root@linuxtechi ~]# dnf repository-packages epel list | grep -i zabbix

Output of above command would be something like below,

Install a package from epel repo

Let’s assume we want to install htop package from epel repo, then issue the following dnf command,

Syntax:

# dnf –enablerepo=”epel” install <pkg_name>

[root@linuxtechi ~]# dnf --enablerepo="epel" install htop -y

Note: If we don’t specify the “–enablerepo=epel” in above command then it will look for htop package in all available package repositories.

That’s all from this article, I hope above steps helps you to enable and configure EPEL repository on CentOS 8 and RHEL 8 Server, please don’t hesitate to share your comments and feedback in below comments section.

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