3.3 Removing packages

If you no longer want to use a package, you can remove it from your system using APT. To do this just type: apt-get remove package. For example:

     # apt-get remove gnome-panel
     Reading Package Lists... Done
     Building Dependency Tree... Done
     The following packages will be REMOVED:
       gnome-applets gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-session 
     0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1  not upgraded.
     Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 14.6MB will be freed.
     Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

As you can see in the above example, APT also takes care of removing packages which depend on the package you have asked to remove. There is no way to remove a package using APT without also removing those packages that depend on it.

Running apt-get as above will cause the packages to be removed but their configuration files, if any, will remain intact on the system. For a complete removal of the package, run:

     # apt-get --purge remove gnome-panel
     Reading Package Lists... Done
     Building Dependency Tree... Done
     The following packages will be REMOVED:
       gnome-applets* gnome-panel* gnome-panel-data* gnome-session* 
     0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1  not upgraded.
     Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 14.6MB will be freed.
     Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note the '*' after the names. This indicates that the configuration files for each of these packages will also be removed.

Just as in the case of the install method, you can use a symbol with remove to invert the meaning for a particular package. In the case of removing, if you add a '+' right after the package name, the package will be installed instead of being removed.

     # apt-get --purge remove gnome-panel nautilus+
     Reading Package Lists... Done
     Building Dependency Tree... Done
     The following extra packages will be installed:
       bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus 
     The following packages will be REMOVED:
       gnome-applets* gnome-panel* gnome-panel-data* gnome-session* 
     The following NEW packages will be installed:
       bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus 
     0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1  not upgraded.
     Need to get 8329kB of archives. After unpacking 2594kB will be used.
     Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note that apt-get lists the extra packages which will be installed (that is, the packages whose installation is needed for the proper functioning of the package whose installation has been requested), those which will be removed, and those which will be installed (including the extra packages again).