[kwlug-disc] Purging already removed Debian packages.

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

I have found that aptitude from the command line is always the best tool for
Debian/Ubuntu.

So wherever one thinks s/he may use apt-get ..., just use aptitude ... and
thinks work fine. Now it is second nature.

As for the interactive interface for aptitude, I could never get used to it,
and hence never use it, for good or ill ...

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 11:09 AM, Andrew Cant <acant at alumni.uwaterloo.ca>wrote:

> Thanks everyone for you response. It looks like Khalid has the winning
> submission.
> Doing a purge through apt-get complains that the package is not
> installed, and therefore cannot be purged.
>
> But aptitude seems to handle this situation no problem, purging the
> offending package even when it is removed.
>
>
> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 2:35 AM, Kevin <norwood.kevin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 13/05/2010 11:23 PM, Andrew Cant wrote:
> >>
> >> Here is a little Debian question:
> >>
> >> How do I purge a package that I have already removed?
> >> (For those not familiar with Debian when you 'remove' a package the
> >> configuration files are left in place for future use. Unless you
> >> 'purge' it, then everything is removed.
> >>
> >> Doing a little research the normal method would be to re-install and
> >> then purge, like so:
> >>
> >> sudo apt-get install example_package
> >> sudo apt-get purge example_package
> >>
> >> But unfortunately the packages that I need to purge no longer have
> >> install candidates, so I cannot install them.
> >>
> >> Any suggestions? How can I purge a removed package without re-installing
> >> it?
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >> Andrew
> >>
> >> (P.S.: For context, this has come up in the process of installing
> >> Debian stable, and immediately upgrading to testing(squeeze). The
> >> update to squeeze wants to change me over to dependency based-booting,
> >> but because of some files left around by some of the removed packages
> >> it can't. So I need to purge before I can have it try setting up the
> >> dependency-based booting again.)
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> kwlug-disc_kwlug.org mailing list
> >> kwlug-disc_kwlug.org at kwlug.org
> >> http://astoria.ccjclearline.com/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
> >>
> >>
> >
> > sudo apt-purge <package name> won't work? It has been a while for me.
> >
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> > kwlug-disc_kwlug.org at kwlug.org
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> >
>
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>



-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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