Uninstalling program in linux

Linux uninstall package / software using the CLI

Linux uninstall package / software

1. First, you need to find a list of all installed packages on Linux.
2. To uninstall an application, you need to use Linux distro-specific command. For example, use the apt command on Debian or Ubuntu Linux. RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Linux users need to run either the dnf or yum command and so on.
3. Finally, we can use various commands for verification of the uninstallation of a program on Linux.

Let us see all commands in action to uninstall a program on Linux.

Ubuntu/Debian Linux uninstall software

The syntax is as follows to list all installed packages on Debian or Ubuntu Linux using the apt command:
apt list —installed

How to find out exact package names in Debian/Ubuntu/Mint Linux

Use the ‘ dpkg —list ‘ command to get a list of all installed packages on an Ubuntu or Debian/Mint Linux

grep command in action to filter out package names quickly that you want to uninstall

RHEL/CentOS/Oracle Linux

We need to use the yum command for CentOS/RHEL v6.x/7.x. First get a list, run:
sudo yum list installed
sudo yum list installed | grep package
sudo yum list installed | grep zip

yum command in action

Fedora Linux

Again, we need to the dnf command as follows:
## List all installed packages ##
sudo dnf list installed
## Filter out the package named httpd ##
sudo dnf list installed | grep httpd
## Delete the httpd ##
sudo dnf remove httpd

Arch Linux

We use the pacman command on Arch Linux to uninstall software. Pass the Q to list all installed packages on Arch Linux:
sudo pacman Q
sudo pacman Q | more
sudo pacman Q | grep sl
To delete/remove the sl package in Arch, run:
sudo pacman -R sl

pacman command in action to list and uninstall package on an Arch Linux

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OpenSUSE or SUSE Linux removing package command

We are going to use the zypper command. To list all installed packages in SUSE/OpenSUSE, run:
sudo zypper packages —installed-only
sudo zypper packages —installed-only | grep -i package
sudo zypper packages —installed-only | grep -i zip
I am going to remove the zip package, enter:
sudo zypper remove package
sudo zypper remove zip

Alpine Linux

Use the apk command to list installed packages only:
sudo apk list
sudo apk list -I
sudo apk list -I ‘package’
sudo apk list -I ‘zip’
To uninstall the zip Linux uninstall software pass the del as follows:
sudo apk del pkg
sudo apk del zip

apk command in action

Conclusion

You learned how to uninstall package on popular Linux distros. I would strongly recommend reading the man pages:
man yum
man dnf
man apt
man zypper
man pacman

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4 Ways to Uninstall Software in Linux Mint

At some point, you will have to remove programs from your Linux Mint. In this post, you will learn 4 different ways to uninstall software in Linux Mint.

INTRODUCTION

Usually, in Linux, there are always several ways to do one thing. For example, to install/uninstall an application, some prefer the use of the terminal, while others stick to a software manager.

It also happens there several ways to uninstall software in Linux Mint. I will show you 4 ways to do that and you will be able to pick your favorite.

1. The simplest way is to right-click on an application in the main menu.
2. You can uninstall an application using the software manager.
3. If you use Synaptic, you can also do it from there.
4. Finally, you can always go conservative and use the Linux Mint terminal.

The first two options are clearly focused on the novice user, while the last two are for more advanced users. So, let us start.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

1. Using the right-click in the menu

This is the easiest way to uninstall software in Linux Mint. This method is intended for novices and it is the simplest way. I must confess that I have been using Linux Mint for years and I did not know about this feature.

So, you have to open the Linux Mint menu and look for a program you want to uninstall. I will be uninstalling GIMP image editor as an example. You right-click on the program and you will see the option to uninstall it.

After that, you have to type your user password. Then, you need to confirm that you want to uninstall the software. After this, the program will be removed from your system.

As you can see, you can uninstall software in Linux Mint can be really quick.

By the way, if you liked this Linux Mint icons, you can read how to install them in these Linux Mint icons and themes post.

2. Using the Software Manager

The second way to uninstall software in Linux Mint is through the Software Manager. So, you open Linux Mint Software Manager.

Then, search for the program you want to uninstall. Again, I will use GIMP here.

Finally, click on the Remove button and it will start the uninstall process.

As you can see, this way requires more steps than the previous one, but it may be useful if you are testing different programs and you need to remove a program without leaving the Software Manager.

3. Using Synaptic package manager

Similarly to the previous way, you can uninstall programs on Linux Mint is by using the Synaptic package manager. Synaptic is also a software manager but it is a bit more advanced than the Linux Mint Software Manager.

So, open Synaptic from the main menu.

Next, in the search field, type the name of the program you want to remove. Again, in this case, I will remove GIMP. Select the package and right-click on it.

Here, you have two options to uninstall it:

1. Mark for Removal
2. Mark for Complete Removal

Mark for Removal will just remove a program. Basically, it will do the same what has been done through the Linux Mint menu and through the Software Manager. The second option, Mark for Complete Removal, in addition to removing the program, will also remove all the configuration files in your /etc directory. So, this way you can keep your system clean.

Note that this uninstall does not remove the configuration files from your home directory. If you want to completely get rid of all files associated with a program, you need to remove its config files from your home directory manually. To find these files, unable “Show hidden files” in the view menu of your file manager and search for folders with the program name you want to remove. Usually, they are located right in your home or in

So, for complete removal, choose the Complete removal option and click on the Apply button.

Synaptic will show you a summary of what is going to be done. In my example, you can see many programs will be unchanged and only GIMP will be removed. After you click apply, GIMP will be uninstalled.

4. Using the terminal

Similarly to Synaptic way shown above, you have two options to remove software in Linux Mint using the terminal. Moreover, as you will see below, you can also remove orphan packages using the terminal.

Standard way

So, the most common and standard way is with this command:

And this will be equivalent to the simple remove option in Synaptic. That is it will remove the package but not its configuration files in /etc .

Completely remove (advanced)

However, if you want to completely remove the program you can use the command purge instead of remove .

And this will be equivalent to the Complete Removal in Synaptic — it will remove the package and the configuration files located in /etc .

Both the purge and remove commands will show you a summary of what is going to be removed. Read it carefully and confirm if you agree to remove listed packages. Be careful here because sometime purge may remove important programs as dependencies.

Remove orphan packages

Finally, using the terminal, you can also remove orphan packages using the following command.

And if you want to remove the GIMP configuration files from your home directory, you can also remove them from the command line.

Now all GIMP files are removed.

As you can see the command line way is even more advanced because you are given more flexibility and more options here. For example, we did not see any autoremove option before when we tried to remove through the Linux Mint menu, through the Software Manager, and in the Synaptic package manager.

Conclusion

In Linux, there are always different ways to do the same thing and it is nice because each of these options fits certain users. The different ways to uninstall software in Linux Mint proves it. Some are ideal for newbies whereas others are better for more powerful users.

If you know more ways to uninstall programs on Linux Mint, please leave a comment below.

If you liked this Linux Mint there, you can find how to configure it in this Linux Mint themes post. There are also a list of thing you can do after installing Linux Mint.

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How to Uninstall Applications from Ubuntu Linux

Last updated January 20, 2021 By Abhishek Prakash 19 Comments

Don’t use a certain application anymore? Remove it.

In fact, removing programs is one of the easiest ways to free up disk space on Ubuntu and keep your system clean.

In this beginner’s tutorial, I’ll show you various ways of uninstalling software from Ubuntu.

Did I say various ways? Yes, because there are various ways of installing applications in Ubuntu and hence various ways of removing them. You’ll learn to:

• Remove applications from Ubuntu Software Center (for desktop users)
• Remove applications using apt remove command
• Remove snap applications in command line (intermediate to advanced users)

Let’s see these steps one by one.

Method 1: Remove applications using Ubuntu Software Center

Start the Software Center application. You should find it in the dock on the left side or search for it in the menu.

You can see the installed applications in the Installed tab.

If you don’t see a program here, try to use the search feature.

Search Installed Apps Ubuntu

When you open an installed application, you should see the option to remove it. Click on it.

Remove Applications Ubuntu

It will ask for your account password. Enter it and the applications will be removed in seconds.

This method works pretty well except in the case when Software Center is misbehaving (it does that a lot) or if the program is a software library or some other command line utility. You can always resort to the terminal in such cases.

Method 2: Remove programs from Ubuntu using command line

You know that you can use apt-get install or apt install for installing applications. For uninstalling, you don’t use the apt-get uninstall command but apt-get remove or apt remove .

All you need to do is to use the command in the following fashion:

You’ll be asked to enter your account password. When you enter it, nothing is visible on the screen. That’s normal. Just type it blindly and press enter.

The program won’t be removed immediately. You need to confirm it. When it asks for your conformation, press the enter key or Y key:

Keep in mind that you’ll have to use the exact package name in the apt remove command otherwise it will throw ‘unable to locate package error‘.

Don’t worry if you don’t remember the exact program name. You can utilize the super useful tab completion. It’s one of the most useful Linux command line tips that you must know.

What you can do is to type the first few letters of the program you want to uninstall. And then hit the tab key. It will show all the installed packages that match those letters at the beginning of their names.

When you see the desired package, you can type its complete name and remove it.

What if you do not know the exact package name or even the starting letters? Well, you can list all the installed packages in Ubuntu and grep with whatever your memory serves.

For example, the command below will show all the installed packages that have the string ‘my’ in its name anywhere, not just the beginning.

That’s cool, isn’t it? Just be careful with the package name when using the remove command in Ubuntu.

Tip: Using apt purge for removing package (advanced users)

When you remove a package in Ubuntu, the packaged data is removed, but it may leave small, modified user configuration files. This is intentional because if you install the same program again, it would use those configuration files.

If you want to remove it completely, you can use apt purge command. You can use it instead of apt remove command or after running the apt remove command.

Keep in mind that the purge command won’t remove any data or configuration file stored in the home directory of a user.

Method 3: Uninstall Snap applications in Ubuntu

The previous method works with the DEB packages that you installed using apt command, software center or directly from the deb file.

Ubuntu also has a new packaging system called Snap. Most of the software you find in the Ubuntu Software Center are in this Snap package format.

You can remove these applications from the Ubuntu Software Center easily but if you want to use the command line, here’s what you should do.

List all the snap applications installed to get the package name.

Now use the package name to remove the application from Ubuntu. You won’t be asked for confirmation before removal.

Bonus Tip: Clean up your system with one magical command

Alright! You learned to remove the applications. Now let me tell you about a simple command that cleans up leftover package traces like dependencies that are no longer used, old Linux kernel headers that won’t be used anymore.

In the terminal, just run this command:

This is a safe command, and it will easily free up a few hundred MB’s of disk space.

Conclusion

You learned three ways of removing applications from Ubuntu Linux. I covered both GUI and command line methods so that you are aware of all the options.

I hope you find this simple tutorial helpful as an Ubuntu beginner. Questions and suggestions are always welcome.

Like what you read? Please share it with others.

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