Differences between yum info and yumdb info with Example

Wise folks say a picture is worth a thousand words.

In Linux, an example is worth ten thousand words.

In this post, we’ll use an example to understand the difference between the commands yum info and yumdb info.

For purpose of this post, I will use the popular Cherrytree notes application.

In both examples I’ve run the commands after installing cherrytree.

By the way, I’m running the below commands on a CentOS 7 system.

So here we go, first with the yum info command.

yum info

[tommy@localhost ~]$ yum info cherrytree
Loaded plugins: aliases, changelog, fastestmirror, langpacks
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: linux.cc.lehigh.edu
 * epel: mirrors.mit.edu
 * extras: mirror.vtti.vt.edu
 * updates: mirror.net.cen.ct.gov
Installed Packages
Name        : cherrytree
Arch        : noarch
Version     : 0.36.9
Release     : 1.el7
Size        : 3.1 M
Repo        : installed
From repo   : epel
Summary     : Hierarchical note taking application
URL         : http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
License     : GPLv3+
Description : CherryTree is a hierarchical note taking application, featuring rich text and
            : syntax highlighting, storing all the data (including images) in a single XML
            : file with extension ".ctd".

Now let’s consider yumdb info with the same cherrytree application.

yumdb info

[tommy@localhost ~]$ yumdb info cherrytree
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
cherrytree-0.36.9-1.el7.noarch
checksum_data = febc31650e96f822cb1a4e52c66aa4a9e71503f861680b3fa3385a478300b7ed
checksum_type = sha256
command_line = install cherrytree
from_repo = epel
from_repo_revision = 1461632780
from_repo_timestamp = 1461640240
installed_by = 1000
origin_url = http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/fedora-epel/7/x86_64/c/cherrytree-0.36.9-1.el7.noarch.rpm
reason = user
releasever = 7
var_infra = stock
var_uuid = 72c6b420-9095-4304-90a7-fbb60a47ec6a
[tommy@localhost ~]$ 

yumdb info provides information like the checksum data and type, command used to install it, the repository and the person (userid) who installed it but nothing about the application or the developer.

However yum info provides information about the application (both in summary form and in a slightly longer version) as well as the file size. But yum info provides no information about the checksum data or type, the command used for installation or the person (userid) who installed it.

So which command you want to use will depend on your unique needs.