In Debian based systems, how do we purge configuration files of packages that have already been uninstalled?

Question

To be more specific, I would like to do the equivalent of adding the --purge flag to the following command

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge [package name]

to packages that are no longer on the system.

Preferably, I would like to know how to do it to specific packages and to every uninstalled package in the system.

The question is not clearly worded. I assume you mean - "how does one remove configuration files from packages that have been removed from the system, but still have configuration files installed". Bringing in `autoremove` is just confusing, imo. — Faheem Mitha, Mar 28 '12 at 05:20
@FaheemMitha Changed the title according to your suggestions. But I think the autoremove only would make things confusing if I didn't write anything else. But the sentence "I would like to do the equivalent of adding the --purge flag to the following command" makes things clear. — Alexandre Martins, Mar 28 '12 at 18:19

Chris Down · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-27T18:02:05.193

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The following should do what you want:

aptitude purge \~c

This purges all packages with the c (package removed, configuration files still present) state flag. Flag documentation is here.

edited Mar 27 '12 at 18:02

answered Mar 27 '12 at 15:06

Chris Down

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Sorry, it's not working line 1> # sudo aptitude purge '-c' line 2> aptitude: invalid option -- 'c' – Alexandre Martins Mar 27 '12 at 15:10
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@AlexandreMartins The first character in the quotes is a tilde, not a hyphen. – Chris Down Mar 27 '12 at 15:11
`aptitude purge ~c` works as well – Ortomala Lokni Feb 21 '15 at 14:11
@OrtomalaLokni Not reliably. `~[user]` is a valid POSIX tilde expansion. – Chris Down Feb 21 '15 at 17:32
@Chris Down Ok, in the case you have a user named `c` – Ortomala Lokni Feb 21 '15 at 17:38

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 21 '14 at 22:47

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For those who don't want to install aptitude:

sudo dpkg -P $(dpkg -l | awk '/^rc/ { print($2) }')

answered Nov 21 '14 at 22:47

Maciej Strzelecki

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Faheem Mitha · Answer 3 · 2012-03-28T05:16:11.727

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The --purge flag removes configuration files for packages that are no longer installed. I don't recommend blindly removing configuration files for all uninstalled packages. You might want to keep some of them. For an individual package, dpkg -P will work (-P stands for --purge). Here alacarte only has its configuration files installed, hence the rc flags. E.g.

orwell:/home/faheem# dpkg -l alacarte
[...]
rc  alacarte                           0.11.5-1                           easy GNOME menu editing tool
orwell:/home/faheem# dpkg -P alacarte
(Reading database ... 345418 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing alacarte ...
Purging configuration files for alacarte ...
orwell:/home/faheem# dpkg -l alacarte
[...]
un  alacarte                           <none>                             (no description available)

edited Mar 28 '12 at 05:16

answered Mar 28 '12 at 05:09

Faheem Mitha

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Usually, I keep the important configurations in my own home folder. This means the --purge flag does not do anything problematic to me. And it actually helps me not having any problems later on. Is there any good reason you say I shouldn't use --purge that I'm missing? – Alexandre Martins Mar 28 '12 at 17:51
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@AlexandreMartins: If you are sure you don't have any configuration in any of the system config files, that is fine, I guess. That is definitely not the case for me though. – Faheem Mitha Mar 28 '12 at 21:33

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 27 '12 at 16:24

-1

aptitude --clean-on-startup

That should clear the package cache.

answered Mar 27 '12 at 16:24

SuperBOB

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Following the manuale page: "Cleans the package cache when the program starts". This is not what the OP asked. – enzotib Mar 27 '12 at 16:39

In Debian based systems, how do we purge configuration files of packages that have already been uninstalled?

4 Answers4