apt-get nightmare - redux...

Wed Dec 27 04:42:21 UTC 2006

On Tue, 2006-26-12 at 19:34 -0500, John Dangler wrote:

> I have what apparently is a broke spamassassin on my server that i would
> like to dump and re-install.  Here are the commands I tried, and their
> results...

> root at mgjventures:/# apt-get --purge spamassasin
> E: Invalid operation spamassasin

> root at mgjventures:/# apt-get --remove spamassassin
> E: Invalid operation spamassassin

> root at mgjventures:/# apt-get --purge --remove spamassassin
> E: Invalid operation spamassassin

> root at mgjventures:/# apt-get -s install spamassassin
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree... Done
> spamassassin is already the newest version.
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
> 1 not fully installed or removed.
> Conf spamassassin (3.1.3-1ubuntu1~dapper1 Ubuntu:6.06/dapper-backports)

> Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong ?

You're not paying attention to the (badly-designed) command line for
apt-get.

The operation you're interested in is called "remove".  The option you
want, to get rid of config files, etc. (which doesn't always work) is
--purge.

apt-get --purge remove spamassassin.

Try that instead.  Note the lack of option dashes in front of "remove".

-- 
Michael T. Richter
Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
MSN: ttmrichter at hotmail.com, mtr1966 at hotmail.com; YIM:
michael_richter_1966; AIM: YanJiahua1966; ICQ: 241960658; Jabber:
mtr1966 at jabber.cn

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not
either to save or to destroy slavery." --Abraham Lincoln
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