dpkg -- what does a status of 'rc' mean?

stefanlasiewski · 08-21-2005, 05:03 PM

Hey everyone,

I removed the packages php4 & php4-common from my system.

But when I type 'dpkg -l |grep php', it lists the 'php4-common' package, with an 'rc' in the Status column.

What does the 'rc' stand for? The configuration files are still installed on the system-- does the 'rc' refer to the configuration files?

Code:

# dpkg -l | grep php
rc  php4-common    4.3.10-15      Common files for packages built from the php

I've been looking and looking, and can't find this information in the manpage, the dpkg webpage or anywhere else ('dpkg rc' is not a good search string).

Thanks,

-= Stefan

mjrich · 08-21-2005, 07:47 PM

A status of 'rc' signifies that the package has been removed, but that the configuration files remain (afaik -- however I haven't been able to find any doc to double-check). You can use 'purge' as an option to either dpkg or apt to remove these files also, if you wish.

mj

yanik · 08-23-2005, 11:37 AM

You can try to pipe it to a file,

dpkg -l >> foo.txt

open foo.txt and look at the first 3 lines

stefanlasiewski · 08-23-2005, 12:11 PM

Thanks yanik.

I tried that, but I don't see 'rc' listed anywhere in the first 3 lines.

dpkg is not a very user-friendly interface-- I guess if I stare at it hard enough, I can see that 'rc' means 'Remove' 'Config-files' or something-- but the meaning is not clear at all.

So in the output below-- I'm guessing that the package 'analog' was only partially removed, and the Config files remain.

Code:

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  adduser        3.63           Add and remove users and groups
rc  analog         5.32-14        analyzes logfiles from web servers

yanik · 08-23-2005, 12:16 PM

There are 3 fields. The first one is the called Desired, the second Status and the last one is Error.

Your first letter is r, thus the package is Removed
Your second letter is c, thus your config files are still there.
You don't have a third letter, thus no error.

poswer · 05-13-2009, 08:58 AM

i installed nis server i made a mistake so remove package but still some configuration file there so how to remove nis package completely

dpkg -l status

rc nis 3.17-12ubuntu1 Clients and daemons for the Network Informat

farslayer · 05-13-2009, 09:33 AM

aptitude purge ~c

if you wish to remove a package AND it's config files you should purge it, not remove it..