Bad id for repo: dnf (yum) Repository Error and How to Fix It

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: dnf 4.14 to 4.20 on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 9 and 10 and RHEL 9 and 10 (yum is an alias of dnf)

The error

Bad id for repo: My Repo, byte =   2

appears when a repository file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ has an ID with characters dnf does not accept. We reproduced it on AlmaLinux 9 with a section called [My Repo]. The ID is the text in square brackets at the top of each section. After "byte =" dnf prints the first invalid character and its position, counting from 0: here a space (which looks empty) at position 2. With [my+repo] the message reads "byte = + 2".

Fix

1. Find the file:

   grep -rn '^\[' /etc/yum.repos.d/

   Look for an ID with spaces or other special characters.
2. Change the ID to letters, digits and -, _, . or : only, for example:

   [my-repo]
   name=My Repo
   baseurl=https://repo.example.com/el9/
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1

   The name= line may contain spaces; only the ID in brackets may not.
3. Test:

   dnf clean metadata
   dnf repolist

If you do not recognise the repository, it was probably added by a third-party installer. Remove its file or set enabled=0 instead of fixing it.

For more on managing repositories, see how to create and host your own DNF repository.

Official documentation: DNF configuration reference (repository options).