apt-get purge snapd does not clear /var/lib/snapd

[Alexander Sack]

after purge i still have:

$ sudo apt-get purge snapd
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  snapd*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 19.0 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 507196 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing snapd (2.0.2) ...
Purging configuration files for snapd (2.0.2) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing snapd, directory '/snap' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing snapd, directory '/var/snap' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing snapd, directory '/var/lib/snapd/apparmor' not empty so not removed
dpkg: warning: while removing snapd, directory '/var/lib/snapd/snaps' not empty so not removed
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
asac@bigos:~$ ls -ls /var/lib/snapd/
total 24
4 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 22 21:39 apparmor
4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Apr 22 21:37 assertions
4 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 22 21:37 desktop
4 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 22 21:37 seccomp
4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 22 21:37 snaps
4 -rw------- 1 root root 2403 Apr 22 21:37 state.json

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Phil P (pgpndw)]

Some other cruft is also left after snapd is purged:

$ sudo apt-get purge snapd
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
The following packages will be REMOVED
  snapd*
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 1 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
After this operation, 23.0 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 177595 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing snapd (2.0.10) ...
Warning: Stopping snapd.service, but it can still be activated by:
  snapd.socket
Purging configuration files for snapd (2.0.10) ...
dpkg: warning: while removing snapd, directory '/var/lib/snapd' not empty so not removed
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...

Left behind are:

Broken symlinks:

$ ls -l /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/*snapd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 39 Jul 15 10:36 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/snapd.refresh.timer -> /lib/systemd/system/snapd.refresh.timer
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jul 15 10:36 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/snapd.service -> /lib/systemd/system/snapd.service

$ ls -l /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/*snapd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jul 15 10:36 /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/snapd.socket -> /lib/systemd/system/snapd.socket

Files:

$ ls -l /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/*snapd*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/snapd.refresh.timer.dsh-also
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/snapd.service.dsh-also
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/snapd.socket.dsh-also

$ ls -l /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/*snapd*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/snapd.refresh.timer
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/multi-user.target.wants/snapd.service

$ ls -l /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/sockets.target.wants/*snapd*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 15 10:36 /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/sockets.target.wants/snapd.socket

$ ls -l /var/lib/systemd/timers/*snapd*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 15 10:37 /var/lib/systemd/timers/stamp-snapd.refresh.timer

A socket:

$ ls -l /run/*snapd*
srw-rw-rw- 1 root root 0 Jul 15 10:37 /run/snapd.socket

And the aforementioned directory:

$ ls -laR /var/lib/snapd/
/var/lib/snapd/:
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:40 .
drwxr-xr-x 72 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:36 ..
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 assertions

/var/lib/snapd/assertions:
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:40 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 asserts-v0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 private-keys-v0

/var/lib/snapd/assertions/asserts-v0:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 ..

/var/lib/snapd/assertions/private-keys-v0:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jul 15 10:37 ..

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

This is fixed in xenial-updates. apt purge snapd will remove all traces of snapd including all installed snaps and auto-generated files. If you see anything leftover please reopen and with the specific files we missed.

[Phil P (pgpndw)]

/var/lib/systemd/timers/stamp-snapd.refresh.timer is still left behind. It seems too petty to reopen the bug report just for that, though.