Así que se podría pensar que sólo la eliminación de un paquete de su sistema Debian sería eliminar todos los archivos de configuración y otros archivos relacionados asociados a ese paquete, ¿no? Pero ese no es el caso. Hay una diferencia entre la "purga" y "eliminar" en Debian. Por lo que yo entiendo, la eliminación de un paquete con el siguiente comando:

# dpkg --remove gedit
o
# apt-get remove gedit

no elimina los archivos de configuración que viene con el paquete gedit.

Si desea quitar todo, incluyendo los archivos de configuración cuando se quiere eliminar un paquete y luego use los siguientes comandos:

# dpkg --purge gedit
o
# apt-get purge gedit

Así que vamos a ver lo que le pasó a mi sistema Debian "Squeeze" durante un periodo de 3 meses:

# dpkg -l | grep ^rc

Salida:

rc bluez-audio 3.36-3 Bluetooth audio support
rc bluez-gnome 0.27-1 Bluetooth utilities for GNOME
rc bluez-utils 3.36-3 Bluetooth tools and daemons
rc dasher-data 4.10.1-1 Data files for dasher
rc empathy 2.26.2-1 High-level library and user-interface for Telepathy
rc freeglut3 2.4.0-8 OpenGL Utility Toolkit
rc gedit 2.26.1-1 official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment
rc gnochm 0.9.11-3 CHM file viewer for GNOME
rc gnome-accessibility-themes 2.26.2-1 accessibility themes for the GNOME desktop
rc gnome-app-install 0.5.24-1 GNOME Application Installer
rc gnome-codec-install 0.3.3 GStreamer codec installer
rc gnome-network-admin 2.22.1-4 GNOME Network Administration Tool
rc gnome-vfs-obexftp 0.4-1 GNOME VFS module for OBEX FTP
rc gok 2.26.0-1 GNOME Onscreen Keyboard
rc gparted 0.4.6-2 GNOME partition editor
rc gthumb 3:2.10.11-2 an image viewer and browser
rc gvfs-bin 1.2.3-3 userspace virtual filesystem - binaries
rc lesstif2 1:0.95.0-2.3 OSF/Motif 2.1 implementation released under LGPL
rc libatspi1.0-0 1.26.0-1 C binding libraries of at-spi for GNOME Accessibility
rc libbeecrypt6 4.1.2-8 open source C library of cryptographic algorithms
rc libbind9-40 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 BIND9 Shared Library used by BIND
rc libbrlapi0.5 4.0-7+b1 braille display access via BRLTTY - shared library
rc libbtctl4 0.10.0-1 GObject Bluetooth library
rc libclutter-0.8-0 0.8.8-2 Open GL based interactive canvas library
rc libclutter-cairo-0.8-0 0.8.2-1 Open GL based interactive canvas library Cairo integrat
rc libclutter-gtk-0.8-0 0.8.3-1 Open GL based interactive canvas library GTK+ widget
rc libcolamd-3.2.0 1:3.2.0-4 column approximate minimum degree ordering library for
rc libcolorblind0 0.0.1-1 Pixel Filter for colorblind accessibility
rc libdns45 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 DNS Shared Library used by BIND
rc libdvbpsi4 0.1.5-3.1 library for MPEG TS and DVB PSI tables decoding and gen
rc libespeak1 1.41.01-1 A multi-lingual software speech synthesizer: shared lib
rc libestools1.2 1:1.2.96~beta-4 Edinburgh Speech Tools Library
rc libevent1 1.3e-3 An asynchronous event notification library
rc libgconfmm-2.6-1c2 2.24.0-2 C++ wrappers for GConf (shared library)
rc libglademm-2.4-1c2a 2.6.7-2 C++ wrappers for libglade2 (shared library)
rc libgnome-mag2 1:0.15.8-1 screen magnification library for the GNOME desktop (sha
rc libgnome-speech7 1:0.4.25-1 GNOME text-to-speech library
rc libgnomebt0 0.9.1-1 GNOME Bluetooth library
rc libgtkglext1 1.2.0-1 OpenGL Extension to GTK+ (shared libraries)
rc libisc45 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 ISC Shared Library used by BIND
rc libisccc40 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 Command Channel Library used by BIND
rc libisccfg40 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 Config File Handling Library used by BIND
rc libiso9660-5 0.78.2+dfsg1-3 library to work with ISO9660 filesystems
rc libjinglebase0.3-0 0.3.11-5 Libjingle base library
rc libjinglep2p0.3-0 0.3.11-5 Libjingle p2p
rc libjinglexmllite0.3-0 0.3.11-5 Libjingle XMLLite library
rc libjinglexmpp0.3-0 0.3.11-5 Libjingle XMPP library
rc liblwres40 1:9.5.1.dfsg.P2-1+lenny1 Lightweight Resolver Library used by BIND
rc libopal3.6.1 3.6.1~dfsg-1 Open Phone Abstraction Library - successor of OpenH323
rc libparted1.8-10 1.8.8.git.2008.03.24-11.1 The GNU Parted disk partitioning shared library
rc libparted1.8-12 1.8.8.git.2009.07.19-5 The GNU Parted disk partitioning shared library
rc libportaudio2 19+svn20071022-3+b1 Portable audio I/O - shared library
rc libpt2.6.1 2.6.1-2 Portable Tools Library
rc librpm4.4 4.4.2.3-1 RPM shared library
rc libsdl-gfx1.2-4 2.0.19-2 drawing and graphical effects extension for SDL
rc libsdl-net1.2 1.2.7-2 network library for Simple DirectMedia Layer
rc libsdl-ttf2.0-0 2.0.9-1 ttf library for Simple DirectMedia Layer with FreeType
rc libsmbios2 2.0.3.dfsg-1 Provide access to (SM)BIOS information -- dynamic libra
rc libvdemgmt0 2.2.2-3 Virtual Distributed Ethernet - Management console libra
rc libwxbase2.6-0 2.6.3.2.2-3 wxBase library (runtime) - non-GUI support classes of w
rc libwxgtk2.6-0 2.6.3.2.2-3 wxWidgets Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (GTK+ runtime)
rc libxmmsclient4 0.5DrLecter-2.1 XMMS2 - client library
rc libxp6 1:1.0.0.xsf1-2 X Printing Extension (Xprint) client library
rc liferea 1.4.27-1 feed aggregator for GNOME
rc mono-common 2.0.1-6 common files for Mono
rc mousetweaks 2.26.2-1 mouse accessibility enhancements for the GNOME desktop
rc openbsd-inetd 0.20080125-3 The OpenBSD Internet Superserver
rc padevchooser 0.9.3-2 PulseAudio Device Chooser
rc paman 0.9.4-1 PulseAudio Manager
rc paprefs 0.9.8-1 PulseAudio Preferences
rc pavumeter 0.9.3-1 PulseAudio Volume Meter
rc planner 0.14.4-1 project management application
rc python-twisted-core 8.2.0-3 Event-based framework for internet applications
rc qstat 2.11-1 Command-line tool for querying quake (and other) server
rc scrollkeeper 0.3.14-16 A free electronic cataloging system for documentation
rc seahorse-plugins 2.26.1-1 seahorse plugins and utilities for encryption in GNOME
rc software-properties-gtk 0.60.debian-1.1 manage the repositories that you install software from
rc swfdec-gnome 2.26.0-1 Tools to play SWF files (Macromedia Flash) on GNOME
rc synaptic 0.62.7+b1 Graphical package manager
rc transmission-gtk 1.74-1 lightweight BitTorrent client (GTK interface)
rc unattended-upgrades 0.42debian1 automatic installation of security upgrades
rc update-manager 0.68.debian-7 GNOME application that manages software updates
rc update-notifier 0.70.7.debian-5 Daemon which notifies about package updates
rc update-notifier-common 0.70.7.debian-6 Files shared between update-notifier and adept
rc xpdf-common 3.02-1.4+lenny1 Portable Document Format (PDF) suite -- common files
rc xpdf-reader 3.02-1.4+lenny1 Portable Document Format (PDF) suite -- viewer for X11
rc xqf 1.0.5-1 X-based Quake Server Browser
rc xsane 0.996-2 featureful graphical frontend for SANE (Scanner Access

Así que, básicamente, las dos cartas, RC, al comienzo de cada línea nos dice que el paquete se elimina del sistema, pero todavía hay algunos archivos de configuración que se quedan en el sistema. Como se puede hay aproximadamente 88 dichos paquetes en mi sistema cuyos archivos config todavía quedan en el sistema.

Ahora bien, una forma de eliminar los archivos de configuración sería dar el comando "dpkg-purge <paquete>" para cada uno de los paquetes. Pero eso sería demasiado tedioso. Pero hay una mejor manera de lograr esto con sólo dar un solo comando:

# dpkg -l | grep ^rc | cut -d ' ' -f3 | xargs dpkg --purge

Eso es todo! Ahora puedes ver todos tus archivos de configuración también se eliminan.

Feliz Purga!

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