[SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

alexanders916 · 2017-06-15 23:42:33

Hello guys,

I installed pacaur to install packages from the AUR (thought it would be easier this way). But I tried to do it on my own, and for me it's easier (makepkg and installing it through pacman -U). I want to completly remove pacaur so that there're no entries for pacaur (like before the installation of pacaur). I deinstalled it with pacman -Rs pacaur (pacman -Rss pacaur would remove some important libraries like pacman?) and cower with pacman -Rss cower. Is there anywhere a file from this packages, which I can remove? Because I like to keep my system clean (maybe's a tick).

Thank you guys!

Last edited by alexanders916 (2017-06-16 12:31:21)

Xyne · 2017-06-16 00:20:43

When you uninstall a package with "pacman -Rs", that package and all dependencies installed to support it are removed. The only thing that might remain are system configuration files that you have created or edited (in which case you should know where to find them) and whatever user files were created in your home directory.

There should be no reason to use -Rss.

Docbroke · 2017-06-16 10:00:12

find -name pacaur

Run this in your home directory to find out folders created by pacaur. Unless you have done any changes there should be .cache/pacaur folder with all downloaded/compiled stuff.

alexanders916 · 2017-06-16 10:29:40

Docbroke wrote:

find -name pacaur
Run this in your home directory to find out folders created by pacaur. Unless you have done any changes there should be .cache/pacaur folder with all downloaded/compiled stuff.

As I know find -name <folder/file> searches for folders/files with the exact name you gave as argument. So searching for folders created by pacaur has to be achieved somehow else.

Yes there was an .cache/pacaur, which I have deleted, thank you!

Last edited by alexanders916 (2017-06-16 10:30:39)

KarlP · 2017-06-16 10:51:06

Use
find -type f -iname '*pacaur*' # for files
fidn -type d -iname '*pacaur*' # for folders

"man find" is your friend!

alexanders916 · 2017-06-16 12:02:13

KarlP wrote:

Use
find -type f -iname '*pacaur*' # for files
fidn -type d -iname '*pacaur*' # for folders
"man find" is your friend!

But again, it only searches for folders/files which contains the name "pacaur", isn't there a command to search for files which were edited from a package? Or I'm too paranoid?

Last edited by alexanders916 (2017-06-16 12:03:44)

Alad · 2017-06-16 12:09:33

If you have such concern about software modifying your system, you should research what it does before installing or using it. In any case:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … ny_package

V1del · 2017-06-16 12:12:37

You are, the system doesn't know which files are edited by a running program. Everything that happens outside of /usr (or /etc for config files) is not of pacman's concern (pacman doesn't know what any given program is going to do when it is being ran, it can only track files that are known to be present before a program is executed). You have to trust that the program in question is well behaved (which I'm sure pacaur is and it will only create files in properly denoted directories) or read the sourcecode or use something like

strace program

and let the program run to see all the directories and files that are accessed during that runtime

alexanders916 · 2017-06-16 12:30:32

In the past I reinstalled the whole system when I installed a package, which wasn't needed. That's why I'm asking, but I will trust pacaur.

Thank you for helping me!

Last edited by alexanders916 (2017-06-16 12:31:06)

phw · 2017-06-16 14:46:31

alexanders916 wrote:

In the past I reinstalled the whole system when I installed a package, which wasn't needed. That's why I'm asking, but I will trust pacaur.
Thank you for helping me!

Doing a full reinstall whenever you uninstall anything is for sure not a required thing to do.

You usually have the following types of files to worry about:

1. The files installed by the package itself: Those can be removed by pacman again. This of course includes the files directly included in the package, but ideally also files that get created by install hooks should be cleaned up by uninstall hooks again (or better yet avoided in the package if possible). Usually you don't have to worry about those files when uninstalling.

2. Files created by the software at runtime on a system level. Those files usually are placed in /var, e.g. log files or data files (e.g. for a database), or generated configuration files in /etc. This mostly affects services, most user facing applications don't write to those locations. You have to decide whether you want this data removed or not.

3. Files created by the software at runtime in the users home directory: This is very similar to 2), but on a per user basis. Most GUI applications and a lot of user facing command line applications store at least some data there (settings, cache data etc.).
Again this depends on the software, and you have to decide whether you want to remove this data or not. Typical places to look are dot files or directories directly in $HOME, something in $HOME/.config, $HOME/.local or $HOME/.cache . If the software was created by sane people searching for the name should usually reveal them.

Similar to 2) and 3) there might be files not created by the software but created by you in order to run the software (e.g. if you have to create a config file manually in /etc before you can even start a service). think it is obvious you are responsible for those

Arch Linux

#1 2017-06-15 23:42:33

[SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#2 2017-06-16 00:20:43

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#3 2017-06-16 10:00:12

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#4 2017-06-16 10:29:40

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#5 2017-06-16 10:51:06

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#6 2017-06-16 12:02:13

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#7 2017-06-16 12:09:33

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#8 2017-06-16 12:12:37

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#9 2017-06-16 12:30:32

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

#10 2017-06-16 14:46:31

Re: [SOLVED] How to completly remove pacaur and cower

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