Apt will not purge deinstalled/removed packages (unlike "dpkg -P")

[Alexander Blinne]

Binary package hint: apt

I wanted to purge a packages config-files after i had it removed already, apt won't do the job although dpkg does:

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ dpkg-query -W -f='${Status} ${Package}\n'|grep deinstall
deinstall ok config-files bcm43xx-fwcutter

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ sudo apt-get purge bcm43xx-fwcutter
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Reading state information... Fertig
Paket bcm43xx-fwcutter ist nicht installiert, wird also auch nicht entfernt (english: not installed, will not be removed)
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ sudo dpkg --purge bcm43xx-fwcutter
(Lese Datenbank ... 87598 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Entferne bcm43xx-fwcutter ... (english: removing bcm...)
Lösche Konfigurationsdateien von bcm43xx-fwcutter ... (english: purge config files of bcm...)

Is this correct behaviour or a bug?

Hardy, amd64, proposed & backports-repositories

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ apt-get --version
apt 0.7.9ubuntu17 for amd64 compiled on Apr 22 2008 15:20:34

TESTCASE:
1. sudo apt-get install hello
2. sudo apt-get remove hello
3. sudo apt-get purge hello

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

# apt-get --purge remove vs. dpkg --purge
reassign 150831 apt
merge 150831 159182
thanks

--
 - mdz

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

severity 159182 wishlist
merge 159182 150831
thanks

--
 - mdz

[Ross Boylan (ross-biostat)]

I just got bit by this too. I agree the behavior is unexpected.

Perhaps, pending changing the behavior, it could be documented--maybe in
the discussion of the --purge option: "Note this will not work if the
package has already been removed."
--
Ross Boylan wk: [phone]
530 Parnassus Avenue (Library) rm 115-4 <email address hidden>
Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics fax: [phone]
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94143-0840 hm: [phone]

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

severity 219567 wishlist
merge 219567 150831
thanks

On Fri, Nov 07, 2003 at 11:49:06AM +0100, Dr. Andreas Krüger wrote:

> I've "apt-get remove leafnode" yesterday. Today, I'm having a problem with
> the leafnode config file /etc/cron.daily/leafnode. (I filed that problem as
> bug 219559). I decided to rid myself of both the problem and that leafnode
> config file, so I tried
>
> apt-get remove --purge leafnode
>
> However, apt-get did not remove all leafnode config files, as I had
> expected it to. It simply declined to do anything. The reason given was:
>
> Package leafnode is not installed, so not removed
>
> I fell back to "dpkg --purge leafnode". That one did what I had expected
> "apt-get remove --purge leafnode" to do: /etc/cron.daily/leafnode is now
> gone for good.

Duplicate, merging.

--
 - mdz

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

severity 305064 wishlist
merge 150831 305064
thanks

On Sun, Apr 17, 2005 at 07:19:51PM +0100, J. Grant wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 0.5.28.1
>
> Hello,
>
> I am expencing a problem purging on my uptodate testing computer.
>
> I noticed that these commands do not scuessfully work:
>
> # apt-get --purge remove iamerican wamerican
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> Package iamerican is not installed, so not removed
> Package wamerican is not installed, so not removed
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> now2g:/media/c# dpkg -l |grep american
> rc iamerican 3.1.20.0-4 An American English dictionary for ispell
> rc wamerican 5-4 American English dictionary words for
> /usr/s
> now2g:/media/c#
>
>
>
> The only way I can successfully purge them is to use:
>
> # dpkg --purge iamerican
> (Reading database ... 108977 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing iamerican ...
> Purging configuration files for iamerican ...
> debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Kde
> debconf: (Can't locate Qt.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl
> /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.4 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.4 /usr/lib/perl5
> /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8
> /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at
> /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Kde/Wizard.pm line 7.)
> debconf: falling back to frontend: Dialog
> now2g:/media/c# dpkg -l |grep american
> rc wamerican 5-4 American English dictionary words for
> /usr/s
> now2g:/media/c# dpkg --purge wamerican
> (Reading database ... 108977 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing wamerican ...
> Purging configuration files for wamerican ...
> debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Kde
> debconf: (Can't locate Qt.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl
> /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.4 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.4 /usr/lib/perl5
> /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8
> /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at
> /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Kde/Wizard.pm line 7.)
> debconf: falling back to frontend: Dialog
>
>
> # dpkg -l |grep american
>
> This does not show anything, so they have now been purged.
>
> N.B. Please include my email address in any replies.
>
> Kind regards
> JG
> --
> Homepage: http://jguk.org/
> Blog: http://jguk.org/blog.rss
> Radio: http://jguk.org/#radio
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to <email address hidden>
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
> <email address hidden>

--
 - mdz

[Lior Kaplan (kaplan)]

# Automatically generated email from bts, devscripts version 2.10.6
found 305064 0.7.3

[Alexander Blinne (sunday)]

Binary package hint: apt

I wanted to purge a packages config-files after i had it removed already, apt won't do the job although dpkg does:

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ dpkg-query -W -f='${Status} ${Package}\n'|grep deinstall
deinstall ok config-files bcm43xx-fwcutter

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ sudo apt-get purge bcm43xx-fwcutter
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Reading state information... Fertig
Paket bcm43xx-fwcutter ist nicht installiert, wird also auch nicht entfernt (english: not installed, will not be removed)
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ sudo dpkg --purge bcm43xx-fwcutter
(Lese Datenbank ... 87598 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Entferne bcm43xx-fwcutter ... (english: removing bcm...)
Lösche Konfigurationsdateien von bcm43xx-fwcutter ... (english: purge config files of bcm...)

Is this correct behaviour or a bug?

Hardy, amd64, proposed & backports-repositories

alex@cappuccino:/lib/firmware$ apt-get --version
apt 0.7.9ubuntu17 for amd64 compiled on Apr 22 2008 15:20:34

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

Yes, it's the expected behaviour... You can also remove them by running:
dpkg --purge `dpkg --get-selections | grep deinstall | cut -f1`
as proposed here:
http://blog.moybella.net/2007/09/05/cleaning-up-after-aptget-remove/

Apart from the above, I agree with you that purge should remove the configuration files of a previously removed package...

[Alexander Blinne (sunday)]

I'm sorry if my original report was not clear, my question was solely about apt-get's behaviour. dpkg of course works as expected.

[Eugene V. Lyubimkin (jackyf-devel)]

package apt
severity 150831 normal
thanks

Well, this a real bug, not wishlist.

--
Eugene V. Lyubimkin aka JackYF, Ukrainian C++ developer.

[Eugene V. Lyubimkin (jackyf-devel)]

tags 150831 + confirmed

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Still a problem in Lucid.
(apt 0.7.25.3ubuntu3)
Better workaround is just "dpkg -P <package>"

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

This bug was fixed in apt 0.8.0 (see the linked debbug), but has reappeared in natty.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

A fix has been committed to the debian-sid repository

------------------------------------------------------------
revno: 2120
revision-id: <email address hidden>
parent: <email address hidden>
fixes bug(s): http://bugs.debian.org/150831 https://launchpad.net/bugs/244598
committer: Julian Andres Klode <email address hidden>
branch nick: debian-sid
timestamp: Thu 2011-04-21 12:18:05 +0200
message:
  Make purge work again for config-files (LP: #244598) (Closes: #150831)
diff:
=== modified file 'apt-pkg/depcache.cc'
--- apt-pkg/depcache.cc 2011-04-18 08:56:37 +0000
+++ apt-pkg/depcache.cc 2011-04-21 10:18:05 +0000
@@ -550,7 +550,7 @@
    if (Pkg->CurrentVer == 0)
    {
       if (State.Mode == ModeDelete &&
- (State.iFlags | Purge) == Purge && Pkg.Purge() == false)
+ (State.iFlags & Purge) == Purge && Pkg.Purge() == false)
   iDelCount += Add;

       if (State.Mode == ModeInstall)

=== modified file 'debian/changelog'
--- debian/changelog 2011-04-21 09:25:52 +0000
+++ debian/changelog 2011-04-21 10:18:05 +0000
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@

   * apt-pkg/depcache.cc:
     - Really release action groups only once (Closes: #622744)
+ - Make purge work again for config-files (LP: #244598) (Closes: #150831)
   * debian/apt.cron.daily:
     - Check power after wait, patch by manuel-soto (LP: #705269)
   * doc/apt-key.8.xml:

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apt - 0.8.14.1ubuntu1

---------------
apt (0.8.14.1ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * merged from the debian-sid bzr branch

  [ Julian Andres Klode ]
  * apt-pkg/depcache.cc:
    - Really release action groups only once (Closes: #622744)
    - Make purge work again for config-files (LP: #244598) (Closes: #150831)
  * debian/apt.cron.daily:
    - Check power after wait, patch by manuel-soto (LP: #705269)
  * debian/control:
    - Move ${shlibs:Depends} to Pre-Depends, as we do not want APT
      unpacked if a library is too old and thus break upgrades
  * doc/apt-key.8.xml:
    - Document apt-key net-update (LP: #192810)

apt (0.8.14.1) unstable; urgency=low

  * apt-pkg/acquire-item.cc:
    - Only try to rename existing Release files (Closes: #622912)

apt (0.8.14) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Julian Andres Klode ]
  * apt-pkg/indexcopy.cc:
    - Use RealFileExists() instead of FileExists(), allows amongst other
      things a directory named Sources to exist on a CD-ROM (LP: #750694).
  * apt-pkg/acquire-item.cc:
    - Use Release files even if they cannot be verified (LP: #704595)
  * cmdline/apt-get.cc:
    - Do not install recommends for build-dep (Closes: #454479) (LP: #245273)
  * apt-pkg/deb/deblistparser.cc:
    - Handle no space before "[" in build-dependencies (LP: #72344)
  * apt-pkg/policy.cc:
    - Allow pinning by glob() expressions, and regular expressions
      surrounded by slashes (the "/" character) (LP: #399474)
      (Closes: #121132)
  * debian/control:
    - Set Standards-Version to 3.9.2

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * mirror method:
    - do not crash if the mirror file fails to download
  * apt-pkg/aptconfiguration.cc:
    - fix comparing for a empty string
  * debian/apt.cron.daily:
    - run unattended-upgrades even if there was a error during
      the apt-get update (LP: #676295)

  [ David Kalnischkies ]
  * apt-pkg/pkgcache.cc:
    - use the native Architecture stored in the cache header instead of
      loading it from configuration as suggested by Julian Andres Klode
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:55:20 +0200