Get the latest libraries for CentOS

CentOS, being a “legal copy” of RedHat, as good as it is, comes with some really outdated libraries. This has caused many, including myself, to find way how to bring latest code releases into CentOS. Be it by alternatives repros or compiling the packages.

Now, I don’t know how I could overlook it, but I just found out that the CentOS team offers a CentOS-Testing repro. Once installed you will get the latest library updates as well. Since it is based and supported by the CentOS guys, I figure it is the safest way to get the latest updates.

Simply add the following at /etc/yum.repos.d/centos-test.repo:

[c5-testing]
name=CentOS-5 Testing
baseurl=http://dev.centos.org/centos/5/testing/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://dev.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-testing

Save it and do a yum check-update and you will get all the good yummies. Make sure that you don’t install something carelessly on a production server, right…