AlmaLinux uses packages that are included in repositories to manage the updates and upgrades of your AlmaLinux installation / installed software. In this tutorial, we show you how to update all packages on your AlmaLinux 8 VPS, update specific software, and update your entire OS to a newer version.
- Connect to your VPS via SSH, or the VPS console before executing the commands below, and follow the steps as root user or use sudo
- Restart your VPS after updating the kernel. Changes are often not processed until your server is restarted.
Updating all software
With the command below, you update all software in AlmaLinux 8:
dnf -y update
-y confirms that this process may make changes to your VPS.
Updating specific software / packages
Would you rather update a specific package instead of all packages? Then you'd use the command:
dnf -y update packagename
Replace 'packagename' with the name of the relevant package. In our article 'Installing software in AlmaLinux 8', we explain how to find out the name of packages. For a total overview of all packages use:
Upgrading AlmaLinux 8
Suppose you want to upgrade AlmaLinux 8, for example from 7.5 to 7.6, then this works exactly the same as updating all your software packages:
dnf -y update
Check the current installed version with:
cat /etc/os-release