Topics: Red Hat / Linux, System Admin

How to tie a system to a specific update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Please see the following page: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/238533, if you need to update a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, but need to ensure at the same time that the system isn't upgraded to a new minor release (e.g. from version 7.3 to version 7.4).

The trick is to use the "releasever" option with the yum commmand. For example, if you have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system running version 7.3 (check with "cat /etc/redhat-release), and you need to keep it at this version (e.g. for application specific reasons), then run the following command to only update the system pacakages relevant to version 7.3:

# yum --releasever=7.3 update
Once the update has been completed, check file /etc/redhat-release to ensure the system is still at version 7.3, and has not been upgraded to version 7.4.

And don't forget to reboot the system after doing updates. The following command will indicate if the command needs to be rebooted, to ensure that all installed updates are properly activated: 
# needs-restarting -r
If the needs-restarting command is not avaialable on your system, then please ensure to install RPM yum-utils:
# yum -y install yum-utils




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