How do I get rid of those "rc" packages? (As seen in dpkg -l output)

johnMG · 02-23-2006, 10:52 PM

Sometimes I apt-get remove a package and it's gone. That is, I run "dpkg -l" and grep for it and it's not there anymore.

Other times, I remove a package but it's still there in the dpkg -l output -- only it has an "rc" in front of it. Why is it still listed there? Why isn't it completely gone from my system?

Just tonight I apt-get installed linux-image-2.6-k7, which happened to also upgrade my kernel. While that text was scrolling by during the update, some lines went by that said:

Code:

**************************************************************
* Please purge the hotplug package!
**************************************************************

Well, "apt-get remove --purge hotplug" tells me it's not installed. Yet, dpkg -l shows it there but with an "rc" in front of it. How can I "purge" hotplug?

dracae · 02-23-2006, 11:01 PM

dpkg -P <package>

johnMG · 02-23-2006, 11:09 PM

Thanks dracae. I see that's a synonym for "dpkg --purge package_name" from the dpkg man page.

But, I think what got me confused was, since "apt-get remove --purge package_name" failed, without thinking about it I guess I figured that dpkg would fail too (since, I'd assumed apt-get was a front-end for dpkg).

Looking more closely at it, I see that dselect is a front-end to dpkg, but I don't think apt-get is (a front-end for dpkg) after all.

dracae · 02-23-2006, 11:17 PM

Yes, apt is more of an extension of dpkg. I usually run this command from time to time
dpkg -l | grep ^rc | cut -d' ' -f3|xargs dpkg -P

divukman · 02-24-2006, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dracae

dpkg -l | grep ^rc | cut -d' ' -f3|xargs dpkg -P

Hi dracae, this is what I get, what's up with that ?
I'm kinda confused here

Code:

Package libgnomecupsui listed more than once, only processing once.
Package libnautilus-bu listed more than once, only processing once.
Package openoffice.org listed more than once, only processing once.
Package openoffice.org listed more than once, only processing once.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove atlantikdesign which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove bootsplash-the which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove celestia-commo which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove clamav-freshcl which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove fglrx-kernel-2 which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove gnome-applets- which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove gnome-cups-man which isn't installed.
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove gnome-games-da which isn't installed.

johnMG · 02-27-2006, 02:08 AM

Just run

Code:

dpkg -l | grep '^rc'

and have a look at what comes up.