Review unused packages and safely remove from Ubuntu 20

Question

Hello,

I am newish to server management and have noticed ‘autoremove’ notices when updating packages using the command line. I have run ‘sudo apt autoremove’ once or twice, but have noticed that some packages that are still needed have been removed. I usually notice this when something breaks in a WordPress or Joomla site that I manage. When this happens, I just re-install the package and everything seems to be good.

I am sure there is a better way to review all installed packages (sudo apt list --installed) and safely remove those that are outdated and are absolutely not needed anymore.

Any help or tips are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

KFSys · Answer

Hi @mikehermary , The packages that are outdated can be resolved by running the commands: $ apt update $ apt upgrade Once this has run, all you need to do is as said execute the command: $ apt autoremove Here is what I received when I did this: $ apt autoremove Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: grub-pc-bin libdumbnet1 libpython-stdlib libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib python python-minimal python-pyicu python2.7 python2.7-minimal python3-lib2to3 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 11 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 21.7 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y (Reading database ... 127785 files and directories currently installed.) Removing grub-pc-bin (2.02-2ubuntu8.23) ... Removing libdumbnet1:amd64 (1.12-7build1) ... Removing python-pyicu (1.9.8-0ubuntu1) ... Removing python (2.7.15~rc1-1) ... Removing libpython-stdlib:amd64 (2.7.15~rc1-1) ... Removing python2.7 (2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6) ... Removing libpython2.7-stdlib:amd64 (2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6) ... Removing python-minimal (2.7.15~rc1-1) ... Removing python2.7-minimal (2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6) ... Unlinking and removing bytecode for runtime python2.7 Removing libpython2.7-minimal:amd64 (2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6) ... Removing python3-lib2to3 (3.6.9-1~18.04) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1.4) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ... Then when I run $ apt upgrade here is what I see: $ apt upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

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Review unused packages and safely remove from Ubuntu 20

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