The first thing that you need to do is set up the DAG repository. This repository is an actively-maintained repository that provides a staggering number of packages with current or near current builds. Adding this repository is a great way to run the latest offerings of many packages.
Adding the DAG repository is simple. I’m using yum, so I did the following to add the repository:
1. Create and open a new file called /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo. I ran “vi /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo“.
2. Add the following text to the file:
[dag]
name=DAG RPM Repository
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
3. Finally, save and close the file.
In order to successfully use the DAG repository with tools such as yum, you need to add DAG’s GPG key. Failure to do so will result in an error like the following:
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
Public key for faac.x86_64.1.26-1.el5.rf.rpm is not installed
In order to add the GPG key for DAG, run the following:
rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
The DAG: Frequently Asked Questions page has additional instructions on how to get the repository loaded and working on your distro.
Now that DAG is setup, it’s a good idea to update all your packages.
yum update
Depending on the packages you currently have installed, this could potentially upgrade, install, or replace numerous packages that may or may not be very important to you. Make sure you carefully look through that list and do any necessary preparations before telling yum that it can go ahead.
For example, yum told me that it was going to replace my current MySQL interface library for Perl with a new one. I added to my check list a note to verify that my Perl code functioned correctly after the install.
I ran into another hitch when I told yum to go ahead with the update. It informed me that my current version of Subversion conflicted with the new version it wanted to install. When this happens, you need to remove the old package before proceeding. This time, I made backups of all of my repositories and my /etc/sysconfig/svnserve file before proceeding just in case. I then removed Subversion “yum remove subversion“, ran the update process “yum update“, and installed Subversion again “yum install subversion“.