subscriptionmanager

subscription-manager, often written as subscription-manager or subscriptionmanager, is a command-line tool used to manage Red Hat subscriptions and content on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and compatible systems. It provides a unified interface to register a system, attach entitlements, and configure software repositories, enabling streamlined access to subscribed content.

Core functionality includes registering the system with the Red Hat Customer Portal, attaching one or more subscriptions (manually or automatically), listing available subscriptions, and displaying current entitlement status. It also allows enabling or disabling repositories, refreshing entitlement metadata, and unregistering a system. Typical workflows involve registering a host, attaching an appropriate subscription (often via auto-attachment), and configuring repos to ensure the correct content is available for installation and updates.

The tool operates as a client that communicates with Red Hat’s entitlement services over TLS, using certificates and identity data stored on the local machine. It maintains local metadata about which subscriptions are valid for the system and which repositories should be enabled. The configuration and entitlement data are generally stored under /etc/rhsm, with entitlement certificates in /etc/pki/entitlement, and metadata cached for use by the package manager (such as yum or dnf).

Usage examples include: subscription-manager register --username USER --password PASS to enroll the system; subscription-manager attach --auto to bind available subscriptions; subscription-manager repos --enable <repo-id> to enable repositories; and subscription-manager refresh to update metadata. Licensing and access to features depend on having a valid Red Hat subscription; the tool is provided as part of Red Hat’s subscription management stack and is commonly used in enterprise environments to manage access to supported content.