How to remove Debian packages with help of vi magic

Okay, the headline is not really the full truth, but with the help of vi you can do some cool things.

I had installed „graphviz“ on one of my servers, because I thought I could create a dot file. For some reason […] that did not work and so I decided to remove this package again. I wanted it really clean.

Normally someone would just do something like

apt-get autoremove –purge graphviz

but sometimes that does not remove all previously installed dependencies.

All package stuff gets logged to /var/log/apt/history.log. At least here on Ubuntu Lucid 😉

So you may find a block like the following one:


Start-Date: 2011-10-23 14:41:00
Install: libts-0.0-0 (1.0-7build1), xfonts-encodings (1.0.3-1), ttf-dejavu-core (2.30-2), ttf-liberation (1.05.2.20091019-4), libcairo2 (1.8.10-2ubuntu1), xfonts-utils (7.5+2), libthai-data (0.1.13-1build1), libdirectfb-1.2-0 (1.2.8-5ubuntu2), libdatrie1 (0.2.2-3), fontconfig (2.8.0-2ubuntu1), libxfont1 (1.4.1-1ubuntu0.1), libpango1.0-common (1.28.0-0ubuntu2.2), libpixman-1-0 (0.16.4-1ubuntu2), libxaw7 (1.0.7-1), libgraphviz4 (2.20.2-8ubuntu3), libxft2 (2.1.14-1ubuntu1), fontconfig-config (2.8.0-2ubuntu1), libice6 (1.0.6-1), libthai0 (0.1.13-1build1), libxmu6 (1.0.5-1), libxpm4 (3.5.8-1), libxrender1 (0.9.5-1), x-ttcidfont-conf (32), libfontenc1 (1.0.5-1), libjpeg62 (6b-15ubuntu1), tsconf (1.0-7build1), x11-common (7.5+5ubuntu1), libsysfs2 (2.1.0-6), libfontconfig1 (2.8.0-2ubuntu1), libpango1.0-0 (1.28.0-0ubuntu2.2), libsm6 (1.1.1-1), libxcb-render0 (1.5-2), libxt6 (1.0.7-1), defoma (0.11.10-4ubuntu1), graphviz (2.20.2-8ubuntu3), libxcb-render-util0 (0.3.6-1build1), libgd2-noxpm (2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-3.1ubuntu1)
End-Date: 2011-10-23 14:41:10

Simply copy this code into a file and open it with vi. Now type the following command:


:%s/\( ([\.0-9a-z\-+~]\+),\?\)//g

Remove the Install: and the Start and End line. Save it.

Now:


cat filename | xargs apt-get autoremove --purge -y

No guarantees, have fun…

3 Gedanken zu „How to remove Debian packages with help of vi magic

  1. controlc.de

    I want to test it with Debian Squeeze but the code line only removes the version details with and into the round brackets. The Install: and Start and End lines are still exists.

    Here are the result:

    Start-Date: 2011-10-23 14:41:00
    Install: libts-0.0-0 xfonts-encodings ttf-dejavu-core ttf-liberation libcairo2 xfonts-utils libthai-data libdirectfb-1.2-0 libdatrie1 fontconfig libxfont1 libpango1.0-common libpixman-1-0 libxaw7 libgraphviz4 libxft2 fontconfig-config libice6 libthai0 libxmu6 libxpm4 libxrender1 x-ttcidfont-conf libfontenc1 libjpeg62 tsconf x11-common libsysfs2 libfontconfig1 libpango1.0-0 libsm6 libxcb-render0 libxt6 defoma graphviz libxcb-render-util0 libgd2-noxpm
    End-Date: 2011-10-23 14:41:10

    Could it be a problem with the vi version (VIM – Vi IMproved 7.2 (2008 Aug 9, compiled Jul 12 2010 12:49:33)) which comes with Debian Squeeze?!

    1. Christian Rößner Beitragsautor

      Sorry for delayed answer. I haven’t tried this for a long time. So unfortunately I can not tell you, if this tip still works. But I guess it does not need very complex modification to work with Squeeze

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