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PKG_DELETE(1) General Commands Manual PKG_DELETE(1)

pkg_delete — delete software package distributions

pkg_delete [-acIimnqsvXx] [-B pkg-destdir] [-D name[=value]] pkg-name [...]

The pkg_delete command is used to delete packages that have been previously installed with the pkg_add(1) command.

Package names may be specified either as the package name itself, or as a filename which consists of the package name plus the “.tgz” suffix, or as a full pathname like /var/db/pkg/pkgname, so that shell wildcards can be used.

Version numbers and flavors (see packages-specs(7)) can be omitted, unless the resulting specification is ambiguous.

pkg_delete will syslog(3) deletions by default (but see pkg.conf(5)).

pkg_delete relies on the file system information being consistent. In case of a system crash, /var/db/pkg may become corrupted. Use pkg_check(8) to repair things.

pkg_delete may ask questions in interactive mode, or error out otherwise. Interactive mode is the default on a tty, see options -I/i.

The options are as follows:

Delete unused dependencies (packages that are not needed by anything tagged as installed manually). Can be used without pkgnames. If used with pkgnames, it will only delete non manual installs in the list.
pkg-destdir
Set pkg-destdir as the prefix to prepend to any object deleted.
Delete extra configuration file, mentioned as
@extra file
in the packing-list.
name[=value]
Force removal of the package. name is a keyword that states what failsafe should be waived. Recognized keywords include:
baddepend
force the deletion of packages even if they reference inexistent dependencies.
dependencies
also delete the whole set of packages that depends upon the requested packages.
nonroot
uninstall even if not running as root.
scripts
external scripts may fail.
Force non-interactive mode. Default is to be interactive when run from a tty.
Force interactive mode, even if not run from a tty. pkg_delete may ask questions to the user if faced with difficult decisions.
Causes pkg_delete to always display the progress meter in cases it would not do so by default.
Don't actually deinstall a package, just report the steps that would be taken if it were.
Delete package quickly, do not bother with checksums before removing normal files. For signed packages, do not bother verifying signatures either. If used twice, it will not bother with checksums for configuration files either.
Don't actually deinstall packages, report the disk size changes that would happen.
Turn on verbose output. Several -v turn on more verbose output. By default, pkg_delete is almost completely silent, but it reacts to keyboard status requests (see stty(1)). -v turns on basic messages, -vv adds relevant system operations, -vvv shows most internal computations apart from individual file/directory additions, and -vvvvv shows everything.
Delete everything, except the list of packages that follow.
Disable progress meter.

pkg_delete examines installed package records for the pkgname specified, checks inter-dependencies between installed packages, deletes the package contents in an order respecting dependencies (e.g., packages with dependencies get removed first), and finally removes the package records.

If a package is required by other installed packages not mentioned in the list of packages to remove, pkg_delete will list those dependent packages and refuse to delete the package.

Where to look for installed packages instead of /var/db/pkg.
Value for pkg-destdir, if no -B option is specified.

pkg_add(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_info(1), pkg.conf(5), packages-specs(7), pkg_check(8)

Jordan Hubbard
initial design
Marc Espie
complete rewrite
April 30, 2013 OpenBSD-5.6