How to create a repo file

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Issue

  • Need to configure a client to access a local or custom repository

Resolution

Manually create a .repo file

Repositories are configured in /etc/yum.repos.d/ by files that end in .repo. Multiple repositories can be defined in the same file.

Suggested Minimal Repo Configuration

[repo-id]
baseurl=http://X.X.X.X/repo
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

Additional useful options

#Describe the repo
name=A descriptive name of the repo

#Define the gpgkey which can be used to verify the packages.
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

#Set the metadata to expire right away so the client always checks in with the host for new repodata
metadata_expire=0
  • There is a wide variety of options available which can be found in the man page for yum.conf

# man yum.conf

Alternately

Using yum-config-manager

To quickly generate a basic file, use yum-config-manager and target the baseurl of the repository.

# yum-config-manager --add-repo=http://X.X.X.X/repo

Diagnostic Steps

The most common problem is with the baseurl. This can target http, https, nfs, or a local file location. Ensure that the location that this is pointing to contains the repodata directory for the repository.

Common Repo Structure
Using this repository as an example, even though the packages are in Packages/b, the baseurl of any client would need to point to the root directory repository. This is where the repodata directory sits and that tells the clients what packages are available and where they are.

repository/
├── Packages
│   └── b
│       └── bash-5.1.8-6.el9_1.x86_64.rpm
└── repodata
    ├── 0c54fd2a8dc26014b14ec6460c1e33f64a3e8d368b139ac2fb3e45b8fc2dcf85-other.sqlite.bz2
    ├── 16725242e2cc2f28fa1c81a62f1bb46a9007c017f31191320258d35bc54ff130-filelists.xml.gz
    ├── 17a6f9ce66beaa549b87269878901bcba422653d29e3ddb1898e84d79bdbe09a-filelists.sqlite.bz2
    ├── 98c8e2406f8dc46908a0e4fd5b2793739738be2e0f8f8042cc41c0908bde51ee-other.xml.gz
    ├── a1d40695dd3fc9e09cb8794833db548d7a7fb7f7d92330b8093334b74413b504-primary.xml.gz
    ├── c8544ccedbf872e8d5d5fa61353dd05266ba9a36d4bfc284ef4edd5b7367846a-primary.sqlite.bz2
    └── repomd.xml
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