How do I get rid of unused packages in Arch Linux

omid

I'm looking for the Arch Linux equivalent of:

apt autoremove

Which removes any unused/orphan package in Ubuntu/Debian based distros, any ideas on how to do that in Arch Linux?

AndrewLowrance

Depends on what you are trying to achieve. Arch Linuxs package manager packman is a bit more flexible in this area. Here's what I use somewhat regularly to clear out orphaned packages. (packages that were installed as dependencies but are no longer required by any installed package).

pacman -Qdtq | pacman -Rns -

Breakdown:

pacman -Qdtq
- -Q → Queries the package database.
- -d → Lists packages that were installed as dependencies (not explicitly installed by the user).
- -t → Filters the list to show only orphaned packages (dependencies that are no longer required).
- -q → Outputs only package names (useful for piping).
  
  This part generates a list of orphaned packages.
| (Pipe Operator)
- Passes the list of orphaned packages as input to the next command.
pacman -Rns -
- -R → Removes packages.
- -n → Removes configuration files as well (if no other package is using them).
- -s → Also removes any dependencies that were installed exclusively for these packages.
- - → Tells pacman to read package names from standard input (from the previous command).

Effect:

This command finds orphaned packages and removes them, along with their unneeded dependencies and configuration files.

Example:

If pacman -Qdtq outputs:

package1
package2
package3

Then pacman -Rns - will effectively run:

pacman -Rns package1 package2 package3

removing them all.

Why Use This?

Helps free up disk space.
Keeps the system clean by removing unnecessary packages.
Ensures that unneeded dependencies don't clutter the system.

Would you like to check for orphaned packages before removing them?

omid

Thanks, I ran it as is. Seems to do the trick without breaking anything.

But now I get this error when I try to update with yay:

ERROR: Cannot find the debugedit binary required for including source files in debug packages.

Any ideas what this is and how to solve it?

AndrewLowrance

At some point you may have been using debugedit, a package which adds debug info during make. This triggers an error when using AUR helpers such as yay, which is what happened here yes?

Unless you need that information, here's how you can disable the debug flag system wide. Otherwise just install debugedit.

Open the makepkg.conf file in your preferred editor:

   sudo nano /etc/makepkg.conf

Look for the DEBUG_CFLAGS line and comment it out by adding # at the beginning:

   #DEBUG_CFLAGS="-g"

Find the OPTIONS array and remove debug:

   OPTIONS=(!strip !debug ...)

Change it to:

   OPTIONS=(!strip ...)

Save and exit (CTRL+X, then Y, then Enter).

This disables debug info system-wide for all makepkg builds.

philipcsteffen

Be sure to read which packages are going to be removed before proceeding. This isn't exactly like apt autoremove and may remove some packages you might need. Although I haven't seen it remove any dependencies or important stuff so it's relatively save, but read the list anyway.