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computing:department:unix:checking_or_requesting_software

Checking for or requesting software packages

Checking for software on a computer

Software can be made available using a number of methods on our linux systems

  1. installed using the native linux package manager (rpm/yum)
  2. available within “modules
  3. available within a Redhat "software collection"
  4. installed to a shared network directory on a server

This can sometimes make it hard to determine what is available to you.

Running the locate command on a particular machine can help to determine is a piece of software is present.

You can check if a particular item is available as a linux package using the yum command. For example:

yum list lapack

If you're not certain of the package name, you can use wildcards as long as you enclose it in quotes, eg yum list “lapac*”

If you want to find a particular file on the system (for example a shared library), use locate, eg locate liblapack.so.

If you can't find the file you're looking for, and want to know if it's available in a package, you can use yum provides. For example:

yum provides "*/liblapack.so"

Finally, if you find a package you need but which is not installed, let us know at net@physics.umn.edu so we can add it to the distribution list.

computing/department/unix/checking_or_requesting_software.txt · Last modified: 2015/08/13 18:34 by allan