CentOS is a project run by volunteers who take the source RPMs behind Redhat Enterprise Linux or RHEL and turn it into a binary compatible free version of the OS. Because it is run by volunteers the CentOS project can sometimes fall behind in it’s releases. To address the need for timely updates the CentOS team has created a Continuous Release (CR) repository. The purpose of a CR repository is to deliver bug fixes and security updates for existing users before an ISO image of the latest point version is ready.

Using the Continuous Release (CR) repository is easy. As root you install one package:

yum install centos-release-cr

Then do a:

yum update

To bring your system up to date. If a new kernel is installed as part of the updates you will have to reboot your system as well.

Once the latest CentOS point version is released the CR repository will be emptied. If you kept up with the updates to this repository your CentOS distribution will be up to date with the latest version. If not you can always update once the latest RPMs are released to the base and updates repositories.