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cpcnw

Member

From: Southport, UK

Registered: 2016-02-28

Posts: 212

Website

Recommended (Safe) way to completely remove applications

I know I have asked similar in the past but wanted to get this from the Q4OS users...

I see two methods used around the net for removing apps from Debian style distros;

# apt-get remove --auto-remove packagename

and

# aptitude purge packagename
# deborphan
# aptitude purge $(deborphan)

The second one looks slightly dangerous. What would you recommend?

Thanks!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Recommended (Safe) way to completely remove applications

I don't know what's recommended but I usually use

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove packagename

And that ensures any config files etc should be removed (but that depends on how the developers configured the package). I have used this method for quite some time with no ill effects and I **NEVER** use -y option just in case the package decides to remove some packages that are vital to the system, which happens for instance if you try to remove something like unattended-upgrades you will find your system totally borked as it wants to remove the q4os desktop entirely (well almost).
But it would sure be interesting to find out how other users go about it.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Recommended (Safe) way to completely remove applications

@cpcnw
We would recommend to use the command suggested by Dai_trying above.

.. I **NEVER** use -y option just in case the package decides to remove some packages that are vital to the system, which happens for instance if you try to remove something like unattended-upgrades you will find your system totally borked as it wants to remove the q4os desktop entirely (well almost).

'apt-get' will never remove Q4OS Desktop and other essentials packages, even the '-y' switch is used. If you attempt to remove some dependands using both '-y' and '--force-yes' options, Apt will still ask you to confirm you really want to do that.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,992

Re: Recommended (Safe) way to completely remove applications

.. I **NEVER** use -y option just in case the package decides to remove some packages that are vital to the system, which happens for instance if you try to remove something like unattended-upgrades you will find your system totally borked as it wants to remove the q4os desktop entirely (well almost).

'apt-get' will never remove Q4OS Desktop and other essentials packages, even the '-y' switch is used. If you attempt to remove some dependands using both '-y' and '--force-yes' options, Apt will still ask you to confirm you really want to do that.

Yes I agree it would not automatically remove them but it was just an (extreme) example of how -y or --force-yes can be a very bad habit to fall into.

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Recommended (Safe) way to completely remove applications

@Dai_trying
Yes, you are right.