5.16. YUM history and logs

yum supports the logging of its activity in a file given by the logfile directive in the [main] section of yum.conf file.

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
...

A sample of this file is shown below.

# tail /var/log/yum.log
Jul 30 20:39:37 Installed: fedora-packager-0.5.1.0-1.fc12.noarch
Jul 31 06:28:07 Updated: libpurple-2.7.2-1.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:28:08 Updated: finch-2.7.2-1.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:28:09 Updated: schroedinger-1.0.8-4.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:28:32 Updated: pidgin-2.7.2-1.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:28:33 Updated: iftop-0.17-11.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:28:33 Updated: perl-Git-1.7.2-1.fc12.noarch
Jul 31 06:28:39 Updated: git-1.7.2-1.fc12.i686
Jul 31 06:42:49 Erased: yum-plugin-allowdowngrade
Aug 02 11:26:10 Erased: iftop

5.16.1. History

The new yum history command is to fulfil the need of record and report what have been done in our system with its installed software. The user can view with this command what happened with recent transactions.

To enable this command, you must set the history_record boolean yum.conf. Enabling this functionality will require some extra space on the system and more processing time but it allows to get a lot of information of what has occurred over the time. This boolean is enabled by default, so there is no need to do nothing unless you want disable this feature.

$ yum history
...
ID     | Login user             | Date and time    | Action(s)      | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   627 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-24 12:39 | Install        |    4   
   626 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-24 11:01 | Update         |   18   
   625 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-24 10:58 | Downgrade      |   18   
   624 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-24 10:52 | Update         |   19   
   623 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 18:09 | Erase          |    1   
   622 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 16:29 | Downgrade      |    2   
   621 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 16:20 | Erase          |    2   
   620 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 16:19 | Erase          |    1   
   619 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 16:18 | Erase          |    1   
   618 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-23 16:16 | Erase          |    1   
   617 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-23 13:16 | E, I, U        |   30 EE
   616 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-23 13:01 | Update         |   10   
   615 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-17 12:22 | O, U           |  197 EE
   614 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-16 17:41 | Install        |    6   
   613 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-14 15:12 | Update         |    2   
   612 | System <unset>         | 2010-12-10 09:45 | Update         |   21   
   611 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-08 22:32 | Erase          |    3   
   610 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-08 22:21 | Install        |    3   
   609 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-08 22:19 | Install        |    1   
   608 | Guillermo <gomix>      | 2010-12-08 22:18 | Erase          |    1   
history list

For more information use the transaction ID with the yum history info command.

$ yum history info 607
...
Transaction ID : 607
Begin time     : Wed Dec  8 22:14:39 2010
Begin rpmdb    : 2542:b5d33dac8483e6aee941535236c8637f070969eb
End time       :            22:14:44 2010 (5 seconds)
End rpmdb      : 2543:2424f6ef25efd89347cd4a5cd5190885f8476774
User           : Guillermo <gomix>
Return-Code    : Success
Transaction performed with:
    Installed     rpm-4.8.1-5.fc14.x86_64
    Installed     yum-3.2.28-5.fc14.noarch
    Installed     yum-plugin-aliases-1.1.28-1.fc14.noarch
Packages Altered:
    Install yum-plugin-local-1.1.28-1.fc14.noarch
history info