apt-get purge

[Derek Broughton]

Alex Katebi wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> What is the difference between apt-get purge, clean, and remove?
> Why when I try to remove a single package, apt removes a boat load of
> other packages but not the one I asked for.
> What am I doing wrong. I had done "apt-get install libreadline5-dev" then
> I did "apt-get purge libreadline5-dev". It removed many other packages for
> 30 minutes but not the libreadline5. Any ideas?

Er.... it wouldn't do that without first telling you what you were going to 
remove and giving you a chance to say NO.  (and btw, purging libreadline5-
dev _wouldn't_ remove libreadline5, they're different - and you wouldn't 
normally need the -dev package).

Purge and remove are essentially the same, except that remove leaves config 
files behind.  You'll never even notice what clean does - it just cleans out 
the archive of already installed packages.