reverting to a virgin system with pacman

graysky · 2009-06-21 01:11:16

I'd like to revert my system to a virgin state with pacman (i.e. a fresh install without nuking the root partition and installing via the CD). Is there an easy way I can remove all the packages except for the system-base ones, alsa, etc or am I just better off nuking the partition and installing from the CD?

ataraxia · 2009-06-21 01:22:05

Even if you removed all the non-base packages, you'd still have customized versions of base config files (like /etc/passwd and /etc/rc.conf) and there would be leftover files that don't come in any package. I'd just reinstall from the CD.

fflarex · 2009-06-21 01:29:03

The following command will remove all packages that are not in base:

pacman -Rnu `pacman -Qq | cat - <(pacman -Qqg base) | sort | uniq -u`

Last edited by fflarex (2009-06-21 02:34:12)

Xyne · 2009-06-21 02:24:07

Pacpal has an option to find files which don't belong to any installed package. For example, if you wanted to find all unpackaged files in /etc, you would run this command:

pacpal --list-unpkgd /etc

After removing all but the base packages, it should be useful in finding leftover files. As already mentioned, some system configuration files are not considered part of the package that creates them and you shouldn't remove them, so use it with caution.

venky80 · 2009-06-21 02:45:47

wow i have been looking for this type of tool forever can you name some of the system config files?

graysky · 2009-06-21 10:07:03

Thanks for the replies, all. Ended-up biting the bullet and doing the re-install.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-21 01:11:16

reverting to a virgin system with pacman

#2 2009-06-21 01:22:05

Re: reverting to a virgin system with pacman

#3 2009-06-21 01:29:03

Re: reverting to a virgin system with pacman

#4 2009-06-21 02:24:07

Re: reverting to a virgin system with pacman

#5 2009-06-21 02:45:47

Re: reverting to a virgin system with pacman

#6 2009-06-21 10:07:03

Re: reverting to a virgin system with pacman

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