diff --git a/salt/exceptions.py b/salt/exceptions.py
index 1e5e42ddcc..2c6ac295af 100644
--- a/salt/exceptions.py
+++ b/salt/exceptions.py
@@ -44,3 +44,10 @@ class SaltInvocationError(SaltException):
     or invalid arguments are  specified  on  the  command  line
     '''
     pass
+
+class PkgParseError(SaltException):
+    '''
+    Used when of the pkg modules cannot correctly parse the output from the CLI
+    tool (pacman, yum, apt, aptitude, etc)
+    '''
+    pass
diff --git a/salt/modules/yumpkg5.py b/salt/modules/yumpkg5.py
index 37f592dbff..4fecbffd1c 100644
--- a/salt/modules/yumpkg5.py
+++ b/salt/modules/yumpkg5.py
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 '''
 Support for YUM
 '''
+import logging
+from collections import namedtuple
+
+from salt.exceptions import PkgParseError
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 def __virtual__():
     '''
     Confine this module to yum based systems
@@ -21,6 +28,25 @@ def __virtual__():
             return False
 
 
+def _parse_yum(arg):
+    '''
+    A small helper to parse yum output; returns a list of namedtuples
+    '''
+    cmd = 'yum -q {0}'.format(arg)
+    out = __salt__['cmd.run_stdout'](cmd)
+    YumOut = namedtuple('YumOut', ('name', 'version', 'status'))
+
+    try:
+        results = map(YumOut._make,
+                [i.split() for i in out.split('\n') if len(i.split()) == 3])
+    except TypeError as exc:
+        results = ()
+        msg = "Could not parse yum output for: {0}".format(cmd)
+        logger.debug(msg, exc_info=exc)
+
+    return results
+
+
 def _list_removed(old, new):
     '''
     List the packages which have been removed between the two package objects