CentOS 7 or RHEL7 Installing a Development Environment

In this Linux CentOS 7 or Red Hat Enterprise 7 we will take a look at how to setup a development environment, with for instance gcc, make, rpm-build and so on.

During Initial Install

During the initial installation of a new system it is possible to choose to install a basic development environment in the software selection menu. See the image below, where a minimal install is selected and on the right side you can select Development Tools.

On a Running System

You can also install the development tools on a running system by using yum. The yum tool has the option to install individual rpms but also something called groups. Which are a group of rpms bundled together by subject, for instance Development Tools. Give the following command to all existing groups:

# yum grouplist
Available environment groups:
   Minimal Install
   Infrastructure Server
   File and Print Server
   Basic Web Server
   Virtualization Host
   Server with GUI
Available Groups:
   Additional Virtualization Tools
   Compatibility Libraries
   Console Internet Tools
   Development Tools
   Graphical Administration Tools
   Java Base
   Java Browser
   Java Database
   Legacy UNIX Compatibility
   Misc
   Scientific Support
   Security Tools
   Smart Card Support
   System Administration Tools
   System Management
   Zhong Yi Song Fonts
Done

Now to see the content of a group you can use the following command:

# yum groupinfo "development tools"

You get a long list with rpms that get installed when you install the “Development Tools” group hop over to this web-site. To install the group you give the following command:

# yum groupinstall “Development Tools”

Or without confirmation:

# yum groupinstall -y “Development Tools”

Install Individual Tools

Of course it is also possible to install individual development tools that are part of the development tools group. For example you want to install gcc:

# yum install gcc

Or all packages that start with gcc:

# yum install gcc*

That’s all for this tutorial where we installed development tools on CentOS or RedHat 7 systems in various ways.
Tip: I also like to install kvm and develop on a virtual host, because that way you can keep your base system clean.