Different types of package removal in Linux explained with examples. Learn package removal or uninstall on a yum or apt-based system.
This article is part of the YUM series. Other articles in this series can be found at below links :
- Package installation in Linux (YUM & APT)
- Package upgrade in RHEL
- Yum automatic updates
- How to download package using YUM or APT
We will be seeing how to uninstall packages from YUM and APT based Linux systems. Package removal also knows as an erasing package from the system.
Package removal on YUM based system
Removing package using yum
On YUM based system like Red Hat or CentOS, the package can be removed by supplying erase or remove argument to yum command along with package name. For example to remove telnet, we will use yum remove telnet
# yum remove telnet Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package telnet.x86_64 1:0.17-60.el7 will be erased --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ============================================================================================================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================================================================================================= Removing: telnet x86_64 1:0.17-60.el7 @rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases 113 k Transaction Summary ============================================================================================================================================================= Remove 1 Package Installed size: 113 k Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading packages: Running transaction check Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded Running transaction Erasing : 1:telnet-0.17-60.el7.x86_64 1/1 Verifying : 1:telnet-0.17-60.el7.x86_64 1/1 Removed: telnet.x86_64 1:0.17-60.el7 Complete!
The above output will be the same even if you use yum erase telnet command. Before removing it will print package details to be removed on screen and ask for confirmation to avoid unwanted removals.
Removing package using rpm command
Same task can be achieved by using rpm command with erase -e option.
# rpm -evh telnet Preparing... ################################# [100%] Cleaning up / removing... 1:telnet-1:0.17-60.el7 ################################# [100%]
In above example we used -e (erase), -v (verbose) and -h (print hash marks) along with name of package.
Package removal on APT based system
Removing package using apt-get
On APT based systems like Ubuntu or Debian, the package can be removed with apt-get remove <package_name> command. Note that like YUM this command doesn’t support erase option.
# apt-get remove telnet Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: telnet 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 60 not upgraded. After this operation, 182 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y (Reading database ... 81678 files and directories currently installed.) Removing telnet (0.17-40) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
apt-get to asks for confirmation before removing package from system.
Removing package using dpkg
With Debian package manager command i.e. dpkg, this can be done using --remove argument.
# dpkg --remove telnet (Reading database ... 81678 files and directories currently installed.) Removing telnet (0.17-40) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
See above output as it removes telnet.
Observe that dpkg or rpm commands don’t ask for user confirmation before removing the package.
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