Normally at the time of uninstallation a package, it just removes the package. There are some unused dependencies left. To remove a package completely, I’m going to share two methods.

The Methods

1. YUM’s Autoremove Option
2. Using Plugin

Step 1 : YUM’s Autoremove Option

The clean_requirements_on_remove directive helps to delete unused dependencies. We have to add this to the yum config file. Open the yum config file:

sudo nano /etc/yum.conf

At the end of the file, add this line clean_requirements_on_remove=1.

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=5
bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=19&ref=http://bugs.centos.org/bug_report_page.php?category=yum
distroverpkg=centos-release

clean_requirements_on_remove=1

Now after removing a package, just run this command to remove the unused dependencies:

sudo yum autoremove

Step 2 : Using Plugin

Let’s install the plugin:

sudo yum install yum-plugin-remove-with-leaves

Now at the time of removing a package, we have to add this flag --remove-leaves. Here’s an example:

sudo yum remove httpd --remove-leaves

The article is over. Thanks for reading.