Remove all packages marked as rc by dpkg

Let’s see all the packages marked as rc by dpkg. Know more about the state rc. This state means that the configuration files are not yet removed. You can see how a single package can be removed.

$ dpkg --list |grep "^rc"
rc  bsh                                             2.0b4-10ubuntu2                                 Java scripting environment (BeanShell) Versi
rc  devicekit-disks                                 007-2ubuntu6                                    abstraction for enumerating block devices
rc  devicekit-power                                 011-1ubuntu2                                    abstraction for power management
rc  dvipdfmx                                        1:20090115-1.2                                  A DVI to PDF translator with CJK support
rc  gnome-blackjack                                 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu3                               Blackjack casino card game
rc  groovy                                          1.6.4-4ubuntu2                                  Agile dynamic language for the Java Virtual
rc  kdepim-runtime-data                             4:4.3.2-0ubuntu1                                shared data files for the KDE 4 base runtime

Let’s extract out the packages marked as rc

$ dpkg --list |grep "^rc" | cut -d " " -f 3
bsh
devicekit-disks
devicekit-power
dvipdfmx
gnome-blackjack
groovy
kdepim-runtime-data

Now let’s remove all the packages marked as rc.

$ dpkg --list |grep "^rc" | cut -d " " -f 3 | xargs sudo dpkg --purge

[sudo] password for abcde:
(Reading database ... 239389 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing bsh ...
Purging configuration files for bsh ...
Removing devicekit-disks ...
Purging configuration files for devicekit-disks ...
Removing devicekit-power ...
Purging configuration files for devicekit-power ...
dpkg: warning: while removing devicekit-power, directory '/var/lib/DeviceKit-power' not empty so not removed.
Removing dvipdfmx ...
Purging configuration files for dvipdfmx ...
Removing gnome-blackjack ...
Purging configuration files for gnome-blackjack ...
Removing groovy ...
Purging configuration files for groovy ...
Removing kdepim-runtime-data ...
Purging configuration files for kdepim-runtime-data ...
Removing kdepim-runtime-libs4 ...

See how we have used xargs and the command dpkg –purge in combination.

Tags: Dpkg, dpkg purge, dpkg remove, remove ubuntu packages, ubuntu package removal