How to set CentOS 7 repositories - Admin... by accident!

CentOS is the free open source replica of the well known Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). With a very good reputation because of its stability and performance RHEL is nowadays the dominating GNU/Linux distribution in the enterprise environment. As a gift, in a similar fashion to Microsoft’s Windows trial versions (without limits to the use), the CentOS operating system is released a few months after the official RHEL version is. It’s not just a commercial interest so everyone gets the ‘same’ system at home and in the enterprise, it’s also, as they say, a sign of good will and an effort to power the people and open source. And I do applaude that.

RHEL releases are typically supported for ten long years and CentOS is doing the exact same. However there are some issues with this. Because RHEL is a paid for support model and CentOS isn’t, some packages in CentOS are quite far behind after a few years of use. It’s not strange to find out an outdated, unsupported and insecure CentOS system with unfixed vulnerabilities for PHP. A staggering situation since many web servers are running oudated packages. This is where system administrators should carefully read the official documentation for the additional repositories: https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories. The ‘Remi’ repository does usually contain the latest packages for popular software such as the latest versions of PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, Apache and so on. However I preffer to use the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository.

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See, Red Hat does have two three GNU/Linux distributions. The official one with paid support and contracts named RHEL, the collaborative and ‘community’ distro based on RHEL called CentOS and Fedora. What is Fedora. Almost a bleeding edge GNU/Linux OS distribution with the latest packages, with two versions, a server one but a workstation version too. This is typically what will later become RHEL/CentOS down the road of time. The EPEL packages are typically first tested there and ‘rolled down’ the way to this CentOS repo. So there is no need to run outdated, unfixed, insecure software. And those willing to run a secure, robust and stable GNU/Linux system can do it enjoying slightly more modern and up to date software without penalties. Although I sometimes ask myself, why not running Fedora server edition if you just run a website.

Anyway, if you were looking for the enterprise grade GNU/Linux distribution CentOS is the one (as much as openSuSE is for SUSE Linux Enterprise). And below you can read what extra repositories I tend to use when I choose CentOS. Again, read carefully the following link, https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories, because you may preffer others.

[albert@CentOS7 ~]$ uname -a
Linux CentOS7 3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Nov 22 16:42:41 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[albert@CentOS7 ~]$

After updating:

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ uname -a
Linux CentOS7S 3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Dec 6 15:49:49 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

As you can see this is the latest CentOS 7 version of today, December 30th 2019.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Let’s look for three common packages, the LAMP stack deserves this. On the default repositories set on, with the (at this time) latest version of CentOS 7.

Apache HTTP:

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ yum info httpd.x86_64
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: repo.nixval.com
* extras: repo.nixval.com
* updates: repo.nixval.com
Paquets disponibles
Name : httpd
Arch : x86_64
Version : 2.4.6
Release : 90.el7.centos
Size : 2.7 M
Repo : base/7/x86_64
Summary : Apache HTTP Server
URL : http://httpd.apache.org/
License : ASL 2.0
Descripció : The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, efficient, and extensible
: web server.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

MariaDB, since there is no MySQL here, not even the community licensed edition.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ yum info mariadb
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: repo.nixval.com
* extras: repo.nixval.com
* updates: repo.nixval.com
Paquets disponibles
Name : mariadb
Arch : x86_64
Epoch : 1
Version : 5.5.64
Release : 1.el7
Size : 8.7 M
Repo : base/7/x86_64
Summary : A community developed branch of MySQL
URL : http://mariadb.org
License : GPLv2 with exceptions and LGPLv2 and BSD
Descripció : MariaDB is a community developed branch of MySQL.
: MariaDB is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server.
: It is a client/server implementation consisting of a server daemon (mysqld)
: and many different client programs and libraries. The base package
: contains the standard MariaDB/MySQL client programs and generic MySQL files.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Turn for PHP. Drumroll please……

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ yum info php
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: repo.nixval.com
* extras: repo.nixval.com
* updates: repo.nixval.com
Paquets disponibles
Name : php
Arch : x86_64
Version : 5.4.16
Release : 46.1.el7_7
Size : 1.4 M
Repo : updates/7/x86_64
Summary : PHP scripting language for creating dynamic web sites
URL : http://www.php.net/
License : PHP and Zend and BSD
Descripció : PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. PHP attempts to make it
: easy for developers to write dynamically generated web pages. PHP also
: offers built-in database integration for several commercial and
: non-commercial database management systems, so writing a
: database-enabled webpage with PHP is fairly simple. The most common
: use of PHP coding is probably as a replacement for CGI scripts.
:
: The php package contains the module (often referred to as mod_php)
: which adds support for the PHP language to Apache HTTP Server.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

And a massive crash! I mean, look, PHP 5.4.16 is not just outdated. It is unsafe. Do you want to know why? Many vulnerabilities have come since then, and you can just check them out in this link. https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-74/product_id-128/version_id-38980/PHP-PHP-5.4.46.html Thinking new improvements have been backported? Just read the date in this changelog. https://centos.pkgs.org/7/centos-x86_64/php-5.4.16-46.el7.x86_64.rpm.html Heart attack? Isn’t Linux the greatest ever operating system? The safest? And… those other wonderful things? Before you choose to switch to FreeBSD (and you should but for many other reasons) there is a solution for this. Follow me. By the way, Apache HTTP and MariaDB are just very outdated too. Let’s solve this mess.

We’ll solve this by enabling not one, but three repositories, the EPEL repository, the Software Collections repository (also known as SCL) and the Remi one. Again, read this link carefully for the EPEL one. https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources

Let’s enable the EPEL repository first.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum --enablerepo=extras install epel-release
[sudo] contrasenya per a albert:
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
S'estan resolent dependències
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package epel-release.noarch 0:7-11 will be instal·lat
--> Ha finalitzat la resolució de dependències

Dependències resoltes

===================================================================================================================================================
Package Arq Versió Repositori Mida
===================================================================================================================================================
Instal·lant:
epel-release noarch 7-11 extras 15 k

Resum de la transacció
===================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package

Mida total de la descàrrega: 15 k
Installed size: 24 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
.....

.....
Instal·lat:
epel-release.noarch 0:7-11

Completat!
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Now the repo is installed let’s update the sources. As you will see the EPEL repository information will be downloaded and sources updated.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum update
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
epel/x86_64/metalink | 27 kB 00:00:00
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* epel: ftp.uma.es
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
epel | 5.4 kB 00:00:00
(1/3): epel/x86_64/group_gz | 90 kB 00:00:01
(2/3): epel/x86_64/updateinfo | 1.0 MB 00:00:01
(3/3): epel/x86_64/primary_db | 6.9 MB 00:00:08
S'estan resolent dependències
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package epel-release.noarch 0:7-11 will be actualitzat
---> Package epel-release.noarch 0:7-12 will be an update
--> Ha finalitzat la resolució de dependències

Dependències resoltes

===================================================================================================================================================
Package Arq Versió Repositori Mida
===================================================================================================================================================
Actualitzant:
epel-release noarch 7-12 epel 15 k

Resum de la transacció
===================================================================================================================================================
Upgrade 1 Package

Mida total de la descàrrega: 15 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
Delta RPMs disabled because /usr/bin/applydeltarpm not installed.
avís: /var/cache/yum/x86_64/7/epel/packages/epel-release-7-12.noarch.rpm: Capçalera V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 352c64e5: NOKEY
La clau pública per a epel-release-7-12.noarch.rpm no està instal·lada
epel-release-7-12.noarch.rpm | 15 kB 00:00:00
Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
Importing GPG key 0x352C64E5:
Userid : "Fedora EPEL (7) <[email protected]>"
Fingerprint: 91e9 7d7c 4a5e 96f1 7f3e 888f 6a2f aea2 352c 64e5
Package : epel-release-7-11.noarch (@extras)
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
És correcte [s/N]: s
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Actualitzant : epel-release-7-12.noarch 1/2
Neteja : epel-release-7-11.noarch 2/2
Verifying : epel-release-7-12.noarch 1/2
Verifying : epel-release-7-11.noarch 2/2

Actualitzat:
epel-release.noarch 0:7-12

Completat!
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Now the EPEL repo is enabled and sources have the latest packages available, so let’s get busy with the SCL repository.More information on the Software Collections repository here: https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/SCL

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum install centos-release-scl.noarch
[sudo] contrasenya per a albert:
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* epel: mirror.kinamo.be
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
S'estan resolent dependències
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package centos-release-scl.noarch 0:2-3.el7.centos will be instal·lat
--> S'està processant la dependència centos-release-scl-rh per al paquet: centos-release-scl-2-3.el7.centos.noarch
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package centos-release-scl-rh.noarch 0:2-3.el7.centos will be instal·lat
--> Ha finalitzat la resolució de dependències

Dependències resoltes

Resum de la transacció
===================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package (+1 Dependent package)

Mida total de la descàrrega: 24 k
Installed size: 39 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
(1/2): centos-release-scl-2-3.el7.centos.noarch.rpm | 12 kB 00:00:00
(2/2): centos-release-scl-rh-2-3.el7.centos.noarch.rpm | 12 kB 00:00:00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 45 kB/s | 24 kB 00:00:00
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Instal·lant : centos-release-scl-rh-2-3.el7.centos.noarch 1/2
Instal·lant : centos-release-scl-2-3.el7.centos.noarch 2/2
Verifying : centos-release-scl-2-3.el7.centos.noarch 1/2
Verifying : centos-release-scl-rh-2-3.el7.centos.noarch 2/2

Instal·lat:
centos-release-scl.noarch 0:2-3.el7.centos

Dependència instal·lada:
centos-release-scl-rh.noarch 0:2-3.el7.centos

Completat!
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Time now for the last repository, the Remi one, which usually maintains the very latest version of PHP. By the way PHP version 7.4 was released on November 28th 2019, a month ago, and the repo already has it going. Remember PHP is now moving a bit faster than before.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
remi-release-7.rpm | 17 kB 00:00:00
S'està examinant /var/tmp/yum-root-GMucKl/remi-release-7.rpm: remi-release-7.7-1.el7.remi.noarch
S'està marcant /var/tmp/yum-root-GMucKl/remi-release-7.rpm per a ser instal·lat
S'estan resolent dependències
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package remi-release.noarch 0:7.7-1.el7.remi will be instal·lat
--> Ha finalitzat la resolució de dependències

Dependències resoltes

======================================================================================================================================================
Package Arq Versió Repositori Mida
======================================================================================================================================================
Instal·lant:
remi-release noarch 7.7-1.el7.remi /remi-release-7 23 k

Resum de la transacció
======================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package

Mida total: 23 k
Installed size: 23 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Instal·lant : remi-release-7.7-1.el7.remi.noarch 1/1
Verifying : remi-release-7.7-1.el7.remi.noarch 1/1

Instal·lat:
remi-release.noarch 0:7.7-1.el7.remi

Completat!
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Now let’s update the sources.

Let’s check packages. We still have the old PHP version available but we also do have the newer one. Look:

Old.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum info php
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: epel.mirror.it2go.eu
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
Paquets disponibles
Name : php
Arch : x86_64
Version : 5.4.16
Release : 46.1.el7_7
Size : 1.4 M
Repo : updates/7/x86_64
Summary : PHP scripting language for creating dynamic web sites
URL : http://www.php.net/
License : PHP and Zend and BSD
Descripció : PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. PHP attempts to make it
: easy for developers to write dynamically generated web pages. PHP also
: offers built-in database integration for several commercial and
: non-commercial database management systems, so writing a
: database-enabled webpage with PHP is fairly simple. The most common
: use of PHP coding is probably as a replacement for CGI scripts.
:
: The php package contains the module (often referred to as mod_php)
: which adds support for the PHP language to Apache HTTP Server.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

New.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum info php74
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: epel.mirror.it2go.eu
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
Paquets disponibles
Name : php74
Arch : x86_64
Version : 1.0
Release : 1.el7.remi
Size : 2.4 k
Repo : remi-safe
Summary : Package that installs PHP 7.4
License : GPLv2+
Descripció : This is the main package for php74 Software Collection,
: that install PHP 7.4 language.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

We have even gained a more updated MariaDB, version 10.3 with the SCL repository.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum info rh-mariadb103-mariadb.x86_64
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: epel.mirror.it2go.eu
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
Paquets disponibles
Name : rh-mariadb103-mariadb
Arch : x86_64
Epoch : 3
Version : 10.3.13
Release : 4.el7
Size : 6.1 M
Repo : centos-sclo-rh/x86_64
Summary : A very fast and robust SQL database server
URL : http://mariadb.org
License : GPLv2 with exceptions and LGPLv2 and BSD
Descripció : MariaDB is a community developed branch of MySQL - a multi-user, multi-threaded
: SQL database server. It is a client/server implementation consisting of
: a server daemon (mysqld) and many different client programs and libraries.
: The base package contains the standard MariaDB/MySQL client programs and
: generic MySQL files.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

However, we’d better be enabling the dedicated MariaDB repository from the vendor. A fourth repo, I know.

You can follow the instructions found here or the ones I write. Choose your poison!

Create a MariaDB.repo file inside /etc/yum.repo.d directory.

[albert@CentOS7S yum.repos.d]$ sudo touch MariaDB.repo
[sudo] contrasenya per a albert:
[albert@CentOS7S yum.repos.d]$

Add this inside with your favourite editor, nano, vi, vim, whatever you use:

# MariaDB 10.4 CentOS repository list - created 2019-12-30 22:32 UTC
# http://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/
[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.4/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1

Now update the sources of yum.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum update
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: mirror.bytemark.co.uk
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
mariadb | 2.9 kB 00:00:00
mariadb/primary_db | 57 kB 00:00:00
S'estan resolent dependències
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package MariaDB-compat.x86_64 0:10.4.11-1.el7.centos will be obsoleting
--> S'està processant la dependència MariaDB-common per al paquet: MariaDB-compat-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64
---> Package mariadb-libs.x86_64 1:5.5.64-1.el7 will be obsolet
--> S'està executant la transacció de prova
---> Package MariaDB-common.x86_64 0:10.4.11-1.el7.centos will be instal·lat
--> Ha finalitzat la resolució de dependències

Dependències resoltes

======================================================================================================================================================
Package Arq Versió Repositori Mida
======================================================================================================================================================
Instal·lant:
MariaDB-compat x86_64 10.4.11-1.el7.centos mariadb 2.8 M
replacing mariadb-libs.x86_64 1:5.5.64-1.el7
S'està instal·lant per dependències:
MariaDB-common x86_64 10.4.11-1.el7.centos mariadb 81 k

Mida total de la descàrrega: 2.9 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
avís: /var/cache/yum/x86_64/7/mariadb/packages/MariaDB-common-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm: Capçalera V4 DSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 1bb943db: NOKEY
La clau pública per a MariaDB-common-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm no està instal·lada
(1/2): MariaDB-common-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm | 81 kB 00:00:02
(2/2): MariaDB-compat-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64.rpm | 2.8 MB 00:00:03
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 931 kB/s | 2.9 MB 00:00:03
Retrieving key from https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
Importing GPG key 0x1BB943DB:
Userid : "MariaDB Package Signing Key <[email protected]>"
Fingerprint: 1993 69e5 404b d5fc 7d2f e43b cbcb 082a 1bb9 43db
From : https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
És correcte [s/N]: s
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Instal·lant : MariaDB-compat-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64 1/3
Instal·lant : MariaDB-common-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64 2/3
Suprimint : 1:mariadb-libs-5.5.64-1.el7.x86_64 3/3
Verifying : MariaDB-common-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64 1/3
Verifying : MariaDB-compat-10.4.11-1.el7.centos.x86_64 2/3
Verifying : 1:mariadb-libs-5.5.64-1.el7.x86_64 3/3

Instal·lat:
MariaDB-compat.x86_64 0:10.4.11-1.el7.centos

Dependència instal·lada:
MariaDB-common.x86_64 0:10.4.11-1.el7.centos

Reemplaçat:
mariadb-libs.x86_64 1:5.5.64-1.el7

Completat!
[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

If you want MariaDB now you have to look for a package named similar to this: MariaDB-server.x86_64

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum info MariaDB-server
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: epel.mirror.it2go.eu
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
Paquets disponibles
Name : MariaDB-server
Arch : x86_64
Version : 10.4.11
Release : 1.el7.centos
Size : 26 M
Repo : mariadb
Summary : MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server
URL : http://mariadb.org
License : GPLv2
Descripció : MariaDB: a very fast and robust SQL database server
:
: It is GPL v2 licensed, which means you can use the it free of charge under the
: conditions of the GNU General Public License Version 2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/).
:
: MariaDB documentation can be found at https://mariadb.com/kb
: MariaDB bug reports should be submitted through https://jira.mariadb.org

Name : mariadb-server
Arch : x86_64
Epoch : 1
Version : 5.5.64
Release : 1.el7
Size : 11 M
Repo : base/7/x86_64
Summary : The MariaDB server and related files
URL : http://mariadb.org
License : GPLv2 with exceptions and LGPLv2 and BSD
Descripció : MariaDB is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. It is a
: client/server implementation consisting of a server daemon (mysqld)
: and many different client programs and libraries. This package contains
: the MariaDB server and some accompanying files and directories.
: MariaDB is a community developed branch of MySQL.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

Yes, there are two packages now, but if you want to install the latest just type:

sudo yum install MariaDB-server

And… what about Apache HTTP. Where is it?

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$ sudo yum info httpd24-httpd.x86_64
Connectors carregats: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-rh: ftp.csuc.cat
* centos-sclo-sclo: repo.nixval.com
* epel: mirror.kinamo.be
* extras: ftp.csuc.cat
* remi-safe: remirepo.reloumirrors.net
* updates: ftp.csuc.cat
Paquets disponibles
Name : httpd24-httpd
Arch : x86_64
Version : 2.4.34
Release : 8.el7.1
Size : 1.5 M
Repo : centos-sclo-rh/x86_64
Summary : Apache HTTP Server
URL : http://httpd.apache.org/
License : ASL 2.0
Descripció : The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, efficient, and extensible
: web server.

[albert@CentOS7S ~]$

We get the release from August 29th 2019. Not bad. Again check the changelog.

https://centos.pkgs.org/7/centos-sclo-rh-x86_64/httpd24-httpd-2.4.34-8.el7.1.x86_64.rpm.html

Four repositories later, we have a CentOS system able to run a quite updated version of Apache, the latest version of MariaDB and the latest PHP, now at 7.4 release. Quite an effort to research, apply, try, enable, disable, and finally getting with a good combination of stable OS and quite recent updated and safe to run software.

As a side, and very personal note. This is one of the reasons I preffer to run FreeBSD, among many others. The OS is one piece, from top to bottom. The rest are just packages and almost always you are getting the latest, or several supported versions. If you build the software yourself with ports, you get the source from the very latest that has been published. If you choose the binary packages (similar to .deb or .rpm) you get a two to four week delay, sometimes just a bit more. Just the time for the automatic building clusters release the packages and maintainers find they’re good to roll. Same as here. Question is why bother all this work?

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