2. HOWTO Organization

2.1 How To Avoid Reading All of this HOWTO

There are three general categories of reader for whom this HOWTO is designed:

• Standalone System Users: If you own one or more systems, have no interest in setting up a repository of your own and just want to learn to use yum to shop for and install new software packages and keep your systems up to date, this is you. You may skip around to the sections on preliminaries and installing yum, yum.conf and the yum client itself. As you have time or interest and more than one system you might consider skimming the other sections as well -- it is easier to set up a repository mirror than you might think, and besides, you can never know too much about a core toolset. You may or may not wish to join the yum mailing list for additional support getting started -- once you've gotten started, you probably won't need it.
• Systems Administrators of Workstation Networks If you own or are responsible for one or more systems and wish to set up one or more repositories, you will need to read or at least skim the entire document. This HOWTO is in fact designed primarily with you as an audience in mind. Parts of it (inserted to support less knowledgeable readers) can be skipped, but you'll know them when you see them. You may or may not wish to or need to join the yum development mailing list for additional support or to contribute to its development.
• Developers If you are a software developer who is interested in using yum as a direct distribution agent or in contributing to the development of yum itself, you too will need to read or skim the entire document, but for you the document is likely to be inadequate. You should almost certainly join the yum list linked to the primary yum website linked below.