Ubuntu – How to remove an uninstalled package’s dependencies

dependenciespackage-management

I want to install a package (DigiKam), but it has a lot of dependencies. If I decide I no longer need this software and uninstall it, will the now unnessary dependencies be removed?

If not, how can I do it manually?

Best Answer

You can use the command apt-get autoremove. It will remove packages that are installed as automatic dependencies, but are not depended anymore.

apt-get has a flag --auto-remove that can be used to automatically remove the automatically installed packages when removing a manually installed package:

apt-get remove --auto-remove packagename

Certain other tools are also capable of doing this, for example aptitude will automatically suggest that you remove the packages that have been orphaned.

The automatically installed packages tracking is built in to apt so the tracking should work no matter which tool you use to install the packages.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to upgrade a particular package dependencies only

Well, if there won't be another answer - here is one way of doing that:

Just install it with apt-get install B explicitly, then mark it as auto installed using apt-mark markauto B

Ubuntu – How to remove recommended and suggested dependencies of uninstalled packages

If you want to remove recommended packages from your system, even if there are still some installed packages recommending (or suggesting) them, put the following in the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99_norecommends (create it):

APT::Install-Recommends "false";
APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant "false";
APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant "false";

The documentation for these options is here.

Then, the next apt run should remove them all. If it doesn't, launch aptitude, and type g and g again.

This configuration also disables the automatic installation of recommended packages when using apt-get. For aptitude it can be done from the console GUI, menu Options > Preferences > "Install recommended packages automatically" (uncheck it).

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to upgrade a particular package dependencies only

Ubuntu – How to remove recommended and suggested dependencies of uninstalled packages

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