Q. I made a mistake and added additional repo under CentOS / RHEL 5.x server. Now when I try to upgrade packages it gives me out broken dependencies / missing dependency error. How do I skip broken packages and apply updates to other installed software’s?

A. packages with broken dependencies is really bad. Yum generally take care of such business, but when you mix additional repos it may give out ‘Missing Dependency’ error under RHEL / CentOS Linux 5.x systems.

You need to add plugin called yum-skip-brokenm which adds a –skip-broken to yum to make it possible to check packages for dependency problems and skip the one with problems.

Install yum-skip-broken

Type the following command as root user:
# yum -y install yum-skip-broken
Sample output:

Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.steadfast.net
 * updates: mirror.steadfast.net
 * addons: centos-distro.cavecreek.net
 * extras: mirrors.liquidweb.com
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package yum-skip-broken.noarch 0:1.1.10-9.el5.centos set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size 
=============================================================================
Installing:
 yum-skip-broken         noarch     1.1.10-9.el5.centos  base               11 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)         
Update       0 Package(s)         
Remove       0 Package(s)         

Total download size: 11 k
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): yum-skip-broken-1. 100% |=========================|  11 kB    00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: yum-skip-broken              ######################### [1/1] 

Installed: yum-skip-broken.noarch 0:1.1.10-9.el5.centos
Complete!

How to handle skiping packages with dependency problems

Now type the command as follows:
# yum -y upgrade --skip-broken
OR
# yum -y update --skip-broken