Tuesday, April 5, 2022

[SOLVED] How to get just a list of yum updates

Issue

OK I have always had this problem. I want JUST the available updates listed in a file via bash script from a Linux system (RHEL or Fedora) using yum but I always have to deal with the Header information created which looks like this:

    Loaded plugins: XXXX-repo  XXXX-updates
                  : WWWWWW-repo  something-updates  QQQQQ-updates
     Updated packages
     package1.i686         1:234                  RHEL 6.5 updates
     package2.i686         1:234                  RHEL 6.5 updates
     package3.i686         1-234                  RHEL 6.5 updates
     package4.noarch       1.234                  RHEL 6.5 updates

All I want is a list of package1,package2, etc. which seems simple enough but it isn't because I can't just grep on "updates" or ":". Am I looking at this wrongly? Why would I not want to capture what updates were found in a script? Should I just update and check what has been updated instead? Thoughts?

PS> I can not use --noplugins option.

EDIT: So far I have come up with this,

     sudo yum check-update | grep "\." | awk '(NR >=1) {print $1;}' | grep '^[[:alpha:]]'

Basically grab the lines with a period in them, the first line, and make sure it first contains alpha letters. Perhaps over done but it seems to work.


Solution

To only print lines following (but not including) "Updated packages"

yum check-update | awk 'p; /Updated packages/ {p=1}'

Note, on my Fedora system, a blank line separates the "header" from the list of updatable packages, so I would use awk 'p;/^$/{p=1}'



Answered By - glenn jackman
Answer Checked By - David Goodson (WPSolving Volunteer)
at