How to Install Atom Text Editor on CentOS 7

Atom is an open-source cross-platform code editor developed by GitHub. It has a built-in package manager, embedded Git control, smart autocompletion, syntax highlighting and multiple panes.

Under the hood Atom is a desktop application built on Electron using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js .

In this tutorial, we will install Atom Text Editor on CentOS from their official repositories.

Prerequisites #

The user you are logged in as must have sudo privileges to be able to install packages.

Installing Atom on CentOS #

Follow the steps below to install Atom on CentOS 7:

1. Start by importing the Atom repository’s GPG key:

   Terminal

   sudo rpm --import https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/gpgkey

2. Create the following repo file to enable the Atom repository:

   Terminal

   sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/atom.repo

   Paste the following content into the file:

   /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repoini

   [Atom]
   name=Atom Editor
   baseurl=https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/el/7/$basearch
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=0
   repo_gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/gpgkey

   Save and close the file.

3. Once the repository is enabled, install the latest version of Atom with:

   Terminal

   sudo yum install atom

   Yum will prompt you to import the repository GPG key. Type y and hit Enter.

Starting Atom #

Now that Atom is installed on your CentOS system you can launch it either from the command line by typing code or by clicking on the Atom icon (Applications -> Programming -> Atom).

When you start the Atom editor for the first time, a window like the following should appear:

You can now start installing themes and extensions and configuring Atom according to your preferences.

Upgrading Atom #

To upgrade your Atom installation when new releases are published, you can use the yum package manager normal upgrade procedure:

sudo yum update

Conclusion #

You have successfully installed Atom on your CentOS 7 machine. To learn more about how to use Atom, from beginner basics to advanced techniques, visit their official documentation page.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 800+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

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