"apt-get remove" don't remove the stuff?

[Chris Mohler]

On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 1:04 PM, howard chen <howachen at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 2:48 AM, Chris Mohler <cr33dog at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>> Try:
>> sudo apt-get install proftpd
>> sudo apt-get purge proftpd
>>
>> IIRC I ran into a similar situation a long time ago - "purge" would
>> not take any action b/c the package was already "removed".
>>
>
> So does it mean when I want to remove package from system, I should
> always use purge instead of remove?

Apt is supposed to behave similarly to yum - if you 'remove' a package
the config files (like in /etc) will be preserved in case you
reinstall later.   What's going on right now with proftpd looks like a
bug in the way the package was put together - I would think that the
init script should be removed when the package is removed... I could
be wrong.

So to answer your question, use 'purge' when you want *everything* to
be removed, including config files.  I tend to just use 'remove' most
of the time, unless I've messed something up pretty badly and need a
fresh start ;)

Chris