Should I use yum to update the CentOS Kernel, MySQL, Apache, etc.?

[bk2007]

I'm trying to build a CentOS LAMP server. I'll like to be able to easily update the Kernel, MySQL, Apache and other important system files and applications.

I used yum to install and update MySQL, Apache, etc:
yum update
yum update httpd
yum update openssl
yum update mysql-server mysql
yum update php

Unfortunately, yum only updates my PHP to version 4.3.9 and MySQL to version 4.1 and I can not use PHP scripts to connect to MySQL server.

I'm new to this installing and updating Linux applications, is there a better and easier way to update the CentOS kernel, Apache, mysql, php, etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Bernard

[MikeTbob]

I don't think it gets any easier than using a package manager like yum or apt-get, they do everything for you. If you need more recent versions of software, you could always try your luck at compiling from source.

[bk2007]

Thank you for your reply.

Do you know which one of the two, yum or apt-get installs/updates the most recent packages?

Thanks.

[MikeTbob]

CentOs uses yum