On Mon, Jul 03, 2006 at 11:02:47PM +0200, Daniel McBrearty wrote: [... deleted stuff about postgres that i can't answer] > - removed 7.4 > - removed 8.1 > - went across the m/c removing every related file and directory I > could find. (find . -name *postgre*, inspect results, then wipe 'em > ... yes, brutal I know ...) What sort of things did you remove with this technique? I'm guessing it was configs and docs probably? > > I figured that + a reboot should get me a clean 8.1 install. > > No such, luck, I simply screwed apt up to the point where it has abandoned > me. how so? what does it say? Did it leave a note? Did it take the kids and the dog or just the tv? > > I'm not too bothered, I knew the risk, and I guess I can fall back on > manual install ... but ... > > 1. why doesn't apt-get remove really remove old installations? what > does "packages will be removed" in the man page mean if not ... well, > remove them? If you installed it with apt-get then apt-get will remove it. "package will be removed" refers to the binaries. It does not remove the configs and any dependencies that were installed to support those binaries. > 2. if apt-get remove doesn't do what I want, what does? apt-get --purge remove <package> removes the configs. the dependencies are for you to remove unless you use something like aptitude that marks what was automatically installed and then removes things when they are no longer needed by other packages. > 3. is there anyway for me to get apt back into a consistent state? probably you'll have to manually pick through the dependencies and isntall or remove them as required. also, there are a variety of "force" options to apt-get and dpkg (check the man pages) that may help you. for more help post the output that apt gives you when you try to install packages. > 4. what SHOULD I have done? and where should I have read to find that out? probably purging would have been the way to go. more reading about the dependencies and possible conflicts that may be involved (apt-cache show <pkg> is useful for this). Maybe used a more dynamic installer like aptitude that does all kinds of more sophisticated stuff than plain apt-get. A
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