[Techtalk] Uninstalling programs in Linux

[hobbit at aloss.ukuu.org.uk]

On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 04:43:37AM -0700 or thereabouts, Marian Routh wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Rebecca.  I'm not talking about the rpm - I know you can get rid 
> of that or save it for another installation.  I'm talking about the 
> actual program that is on the hard disk, taking up 234 MB of precious 
> space.  Since the uninstall routines apparently don't work or I'm not 
> doing them correctly, can I just delete all references to the program 
> and that will get rid of it?  You know, delete folders, executables, 
> etc.  It doesn't look like Linux has a registry the way Windows does.

You could try "rpm -ql nameofpackage" and that may give you a list
of every file it installed. Maybe, perhaps. This rpm seems to be
rather an odd one. "rpm ql nameofpackage > to-nuke-list" will put it
in a file for you; you could then edit that file to remove anything
that looks like it's supposed to be there, and stuff "rm" in front
of every line and run it as a script.

Drastic, potentially dangerous, but a thought. (And someone is
bound to come up with something better after I suggest this.)

Telsa