We may not want to update some packages such the kernel on a stable server while updating the system. If we run “dnf update” or “yum update”, we may get suggested by dnf/yum to install all the packages with updates.

In this post, how to make dnf/yum not update certain packages such the kernel when updating system will be introduced.

Method making dnf/yum not update certain packages

The method is simple. Add this line to dnf or yum’s configuration file:

exclude=package_names package_name_pattern

For example, to exclude package kernel, nss and nss- from being updated, the line will be:

exclude=kernel* nss nss-*

Package names are separated by a space. Shell globs using wildcards (eg. * and ?) are allowed.

The configuration file for dnf/yum

The configuration file for dnf and yum are different. For newer systems like Fedora 22+, the dnf one will be used unless you install the yum-obsoleted package.

For dnf, the configuration file is located under:

/etc/dnf/dnf.conf

For yum, the configuration file is located under:

/etc/yum.conf