pkg_delete(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

PKG_DELETE(1)           NetBSD General Commands Manual           PKG_DELETE(1)


NAME

     pkg_delete -- a utility for deleting previously installed software pack-
     age distributions


SYNOPSIS

     pkg_delete [-ADFfkNnORrVv] [-K pkg_dbdir] [-P destdir] [-p prefix]
                pkg-name ...


DESCRIPTION

     The pkg_delete command is used to delete packages that have been previ-
     ously installed with the pkg_add(1) command.  The given packages are
     sorted, so that the dependencies needed by a package are deleted after
     the package.  Before any action is executed, pkg_delete checks for pack-
     ages that are marked as preserved or have depending packages left.  If
     the -k flag is given, preserved packages are skipped and not removed.
     Unless the -f flag is given, pkg_delete stops on the first error.


WARNING

     Since the pkg_delete command may execute scripts or programs provided by
     a package file, your system may be susceptible to ``Trojan horses'' or
     other subtle attacks from miscreants who create dangerous package files.

     You are advised to verify the competence and identity of those who pro-
     vide installable package files.  For extra protection, examine all the
     package control files in the package record directory
     <PKG_DBDIR>/<pkg-name>/).  Pay particular attention to any +INSTALL or
     +DEINSTALL files, and inspect the +CONTENTS file for @cwd, @mode (check
     for setuid), @dirrm, @exec, and @unexec directives, and/or use the
     pkg_info(1) command to examine the installed package control files.


OPTIONS

     The following command line options are supported:

     pkg-name ...
             The named packages are deinstalled, wildcards can be used, see
             pkg_info(1).  If no version is given, the one currently installed
             will be removed.  If the -F flag is given, one or more (absolute)
             filenames may be specified and the package database will be con-
             sulted for the package to which the given file belongs.  These
             packages are then deinstalled.

     -A      Recursively remove all automatically installed packages that were
             needed by the given packages and are no longer required.  Does
             not remove manually installed packages; see also the -R flag.

     -D      If a deinstallation script exists for a given package, do not
             execute it.

     -F      Any pkg-name given will be interpreted as pathname which is sub-
             sequently transformed in a (real) package name via the package
             database.  That way, packages can be deleted by giving a filename
             instead of the package-name.

     -f      Force removal of the package, even if a dependency is recorded or
             the deinstall script fails.  This might break the package data-
             base; see pkg_admin(1) on how to repair it.

     -ff     Force removal of the package, even if the package is marked as a
             preserved package.  Note that this is a dangerous operation.  See
             also the -k option.

     -K pkg_dbdir
             Override the value of the PKG_DBDIR configuration option with the
             value pkg_dbdir.

     -k      Silently skip all packages that are marked as preserved.

     -N      Remove the package's registration and its entries from the pack-
             age database, but leave the files installed.  Don't run any dein-
             stall scripts or @unexec lines either.

     -n      Don't actually deinstall a package, just report the steps that
             would be taken.

     -O      Only delete the package's entries from the package database; do
             not touch the package or its files itself.

     -P destdir
             Prefix all file and directory names with destdir.  For packages
             without install scripts this has the same behavior as using
             chroot(8).

     -p prefix
             Set prefix as the directory in which to delete files from any
             installed packages which do not explicitly set theirs.  For most
             packages, the prefix will be set automatically to the installed
             location by pkg_add(1).

     -R      Recursively remove all packages that were needed by the given
             packages and are no longer required.  This option overrides the
             -A flag.

     -r      Recursively remove all packages that require one of the packages
             given.

     -V      Print version number and exit.

     -v      Turn on verbose output.


TECHNICAL DETAILS

     pkg_delete does pretty much what it says.  It examines installed package
     records in <PKG_DBDIR>/<pkg-name>, deletes the package contents, and
     finally removes the package records.

     If a package is required by other installed packages, pkg_delete will
     list those dependent packages and refuse to delete the package (unless
     the -f option is given).

     If a package has been marked as a preserved package, it will not be able
     to be deleted (unless more than one occurrence of the -f option is
     given).

     If a filename is given instead of a package name, the package of which
     the given file belongs to can be deleted if the -F flag is given.  The
     filename needs to be absolute, see the output produced by the pkg_info(1)
     -aF command.

     If a deinstall script exists for the package, it is executed before and
     after any files are removed.  It is this script's responsibility to clean
     up any additional messy details around the package's installation, since
     all pkg_delete knows how to do is delete the files created in the origi-
     nal distribution.  The deinstall script is called as:
           deinstall <pkg-name> DEINSTALL
     before deleting all files and as:
           deinstall <pkg-name> POST-DEINSTALL
     after deleting them.  Passing the keywords DEINSTALL and POST-DEINSTALL
     lets you potentially write only one program/script that handles all
     aspects of installation and deletion.

     All scripts are called with the environment variable PKG_PREFIX set to
     the installation prefix (see the -p option above).  This allows a package
     author to write a script that reliably performs some action on the direc-
     tory where the package is installed, even if the user might have changed
     it by specifying the -p option when running pkg_delete or pkg_add(1).
     The scripts are also called with the PKG_METADATA_DIR environment vari-
     able set to the location of the +* meta-data files, and with the
     PKG_REFCOUNT_DBDIR environment variable set to the location of the pack-
     age reference counts database directory.  If the -P flag was given to
     pkg_delete, PKG_DESTDIR will be set to destdir.


ENVIRONMENT

     See pkg_install.conf(5) for options, that can also be specified using the
     environment.


SEE ALSO

     pkg_add(1), pkg_admin(1), pkg_create(1), pkg_info(1), pkg_install.conf(5)
     pkgsrc(7)


AUTHORS

     Jordan Hubbard
             most of the work
     John Kohl
             refined it for NetBSD
     Hubert Feyrer
             NetBSD wildcard dependency processing, pkgdb, recursive "down"
             delete, etc.
     Joerg Sonnenberger
             Rewrote most of the code to compute correct order of deinstalla-
             tion and to improve error handling.

NetBSD 8.0                     December 27, 2014                    NetBSD 8.0