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I've been using Linux (mainly Ubuntu) for about two years now. I've had several installations on several machines. Something that inevitably happens on any OS installation is that I install something I need that day, maybe a library or CLI utility, use it for a week, and then forget about it.

I'm sure I've got several GB of unused packages taking up space on my installations. How can I clean up my installation to make sure that I only have things that I want?

I'm aware of apt-get autoremove to remove unused dependencies.

I'm aware of apt list --installed to view all packages installed through apt.

I'm aware of dpkg -L to view all files installed from a package.

Suppose I were to look though the output of apt list --installed and remove things I don't want by either apt-get purge or deleting every file from dpkg -L <package>. Eventually, I would have cleaned up everything installed through my package manager, right?

Where else should I look? Not everything on my computer was installed through apt. For example, .deb packages like google-chrome and things installed via scripts. Where would these things live? And what's the best way to find them?

My goal is to shrink my installation down to basically a fresh install plus the things I use all the time.

Thanks, all!

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  • .deb packages (like google-chrome) are listed since they utilize the package management to be installed. Commented Aug 8, 2020 at 9:54
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    A good method to get rid of old program packages, that you no longer use is to make a fresh installation, and then add the [extra] packages that you need, when you need them. I think it can be at least as fast and smooth as uninstalling things that you can hardly remember. Please remember that installing a Linux distro is very fast. - You might keep the home directory for the settings and of course your personal files. I keep the personal files in a 'data' partition, so it is independent of the operating system. It is a good time now right after the release of Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS. Commented Aug 8, 2020 at 19:33
  • You just need to search for manually installed packages and then purge them. Commented Feb 16, 2024 at 9:20
  • You could start by listing all the font* packages and removing those in languages you know you will never use. Commented Oct 20, 2024 at 22:36

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One method for keeping your machine clean is to install everything you want to test or for a specific purpose inside a docker container (this is what I actually do).

Another method is to test the snap/flatpak/appimage packages. These are bundles with all the libraries they use already included, easy to install, easy to remove and conflict avoidance.

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I normally use aptitude for that, it gives you a way to interactively mark and unmark packages for installation (+) or removal (-), or mark them as manually (m) or automatically (M) installed.

I'll just go through the "Installed Packages" section, and remove things I'm sure I don't want, and mark things as manually installed that I'm sure I don't need directly for anything. The entire "libs" section can be marked as automatically installed by pressing M on the section header.

Also, there is the "Obsolete and Locally Installed Packages" section, which is also full of good candidates for removal.

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