Using the Redhat package management tool

To list available packages and narrow selection, at the shell prompt, use

yum list available
yum list available | grep -iF PATTERN
yum list available | grep -iF java
yum list available | grep -iF tomcat

To install a package, use

yum install PACKAGE

To list installed packages and narrow selection, use

yum list installed
yum list installed | grep -iF PATTERN
yum list available | grep -iF java
yum list installed | grep -iF tomcat

To list an installed package's files, use

  rpm -ql PACKAGE

  yum list installed | fgrep tomcat
  rpm -ql tomcat5

  yum list installed | fgrep java
  rpm -ql java-1.5.0-sun

Using the Redhat service management tool

The system services are operated by scripts in

/etc/init.d/

To display helpful usage instruction, use

cd /etc/init.d
./sshd
Usage: ./sshd {start|stop|restart|reload|condrestart|status}

Note: The service(8) command manages the system services.

To check the status of a service

service SERVICE status
service postgresql status

To stop a service

service SERVICE stop

To start a service

service SERVICE start

The chkconfig(8) command manages system services at init boot time.

To have a service start at init boot time

chkconfig SERVICE on
chkconfig tomcat5 on
chkconfig postgresql on