Occasionally one searches for an RPM package without knowing the name of the RPM package. Often you have one or more keywords that are related to the RPM package. The “yum search” command can be used for such cases. For example, if you are looking for an RPM package that contains a command to download files via FTP and HTTP, you could search for FTP, for example:

aix01 # yum search ftp
=========================================== N/S Matched: ftp ===========================================
ncftp.ppc : An improved FTP client.
proftpd.ppc : Flexible, stable and highly-configurable FTP server
proftpd-ldap.ppc : Module to add LDAP support to the ProFTPD FTP server
proftpd-sqlite.ppc : Module to add SQLite support to the ProFTPD FTP server
curl.ppc : get a file from a FTP or HTTP server.
lftp.ppc : A sophisticated file transfer program
wget.ppc : A utility for retrieving files using the HTTP or FTP protocols

  Name and summary matches only, use "search all" for everything.
aix01 # 

Among the hits are curl and wget, two RPM packages that contain commands to download files. A number of other RPM packages are also listed. In some cases this can quickly lead to a large number of package names being found.

If you have more than one keyword, it is advisable to include those as well. Here the search for FTP and HTTP (upper/lower case does not matter):

aix01 # yum search http ftp
======================================== N/S Matched: http, ftp ========================================
curl.ppc : get a file from a FTP or HTTP server.
wget.ppc : A utility for retrieving files using the HTTP or FTP protocols

  Full name and summary matches only, use "search all" for everything.
aix01 # 

In this case there are only 2 hits.

By default, the specified search terms are only searched for in the package name and in the summary of the RPM package. Only if this does not result in a hit, the detailed description and the URL will be searched as well. For example, the description of curl includes the words “tricks” and “many useful”. Neither can be found in a short description or in a name on our example system, so the long description is also searched:

aix01 # yum search tricks
=========================================== Matched: tricks ============================================
curl.ppc : get a file from a FTP or HTTP server.
aix01 # 
aix01 # yum search "many useful"
========================================= Matched: many useful =========================================
curl.ppc : get a file from a FTP or HTTP server.
aix01 # 

In both cases, curl is found using the full description.

The word “proxy” also appears in the detailed description of curl. When searching for the word “proxy“, however, the RPM package curl is not found because the word “proxy” was found in the short description of some other RPM packages and therefore no search was started in the detailed descriptions:

aix01 # yum search proxy
========================================== N/S Matched: proxy ==========================================
mod_proxy_html.ppc : Proxy HTML filter modules for the Apache HTTP server
nghttp2.ppc : Experimental HTTP/2 client, server and proxy
nginx.ppc : A high performance web server and reverse proxy server
squid.ppc : The Squid proxy caching server.

  Name and summary matches only, use "search all" for everything.
aix01 # 

However, you can force the command “yum search” to search through the long descriptions and URL by entering the word “all” as the first search term after “search”. In this case, the search is not for “all“, but yum signals that in addition to the package name and short description (summary), the detailed description and URL should also be searched. We show this here by searching for the term “proxy” again:

aix01 # yum search all proxy
============================================ Matched: proxy ============================================
mod_proxy_html.ppc : Proxy HTML filter modules for the Apache HTTP server
nghttp2.ppc : Experimental HTTP/2 client, server and proxy
nginx.ppc : A high performance web server and reverse proxy server
squid.ppc : The Squid proxy caching server.
curl.ppc : get a file from a FTP or HTTP server.
neon.ppc : An HTTP and WebDAV client library
socat.ppc : Bidirectional data relay between two data channels ('netcat++')
wget.ppc : A utility for retrieving files using the HTTP or FTP protocols
aix01 # 

This time curl is among the hits!