how to *completely* remove a package from the cmd line?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010, Tyler J. Wagner wrote:

> On Tuesday 10 Aug 2010 12:42:22 Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > $ dpkg -l | grep ^rc
> > rc  authbind                                    1.2.0build3
> > Allows non-root programs to bind() to low po
> > $
> >
> >   so, as i understand debian pkg mgmt, that means the package has been
> > removed but not necessarily purged.  so far, so good.  but what can i
> > use to see what files still exist that are (allegedly?) related to
> > that package?
> >
> > $ dpkg -L authbind
> > Package `authbind' does not contain any files (!)
>
> That means authbind is removed, but not purged, and it has no config files
> (generally files in /etc and /var, but directly listed in the package). If
> there are any, they would be listed by 'dpkg -L'. Example:
>
> tyler at baal:~$ dpkg -l postfix
> rc  postfix        2.7.0-1        High-performance mail transport agent
>
> tyler at baal:~$ dpkg -L postfix
> /etc
> /etc/init.d
> /etc/init.d/postfix
> ....
> /etc/resolvconf
> /etc/resolvconf/update-libc.d
> /etc/resolvconf/update-libc.d/postfix
> /var/spool/postfix

  sure, i get all that, but am i just being confused in not seeing how
that applies to, say, the authbind package above?  it's been removed
(not purged), and "dpkg -L" shows no files in that package.  but
there's clearly *something* still related to that package on my
system, which command-line purging doesn't get rid of, but going into
synaptic and doing a "remove completely" *does* get rid of.  i just
want to know what the command-line equivalent of that operation is.
or, before that, what command will show me what remnants of that
package are still on my system.

  in short, how do i see what cruft related to authbind is still
hanging out on my system?

rday

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

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