linux package management

When managing packages on a Linux system, it's crucial to maintain clean and manageable software installations. Linux distributions use different package managers, but all have mechanisms to review past transactions, an excellent way to troubleshoot installation issues, verify changes, or simply audit installed software. In this blog, we'll explore how to use dnf history on Fedora and similar distributions, while also covering equivalent commands in apt for Debian/Ubuntu systems, and zypper for openSUSE/SUSE Linux Enterprise. dnf (Dandified YUM) is the default package manager on Fedora and other RPM-based distributions like CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

When working in environments where internet access is regulated through a proxy server, it can be a challenge to configure all aspects of a Linux system to adhere to the strict access controls. Among the various configurations required, setting up package managers such as APT (used in Debian and Ubuntu), DNF (used in Fedora and CentOS), YUM (legacy manager for older Red Hat/CentOS systems), and Zypper (used in openSUSE) is crucial to ensure software and updates can be smoothly installed without direct internet access. Here’s how you can configure proxy settings for these various package managers. APT is widely used in Debian-based distributions.