Ubuntu 8.10 - Using aptitude to Install and Uninstall Software

For new users of ubuntu, there is no doubt that you will play along with all sort of softwares, test it and then, uninstall it from your ubuntu. You probably will do the same thing for umpteen times and before you knew it, you already had your /var/cache/apt/archives repository full of obsolete packages, which you can't figure out which you really want and vice versa.

It's a good practice to use aptitude command-line instead of apt-get when installing and uninstalling the softwares in the first place although most of you (even myself) will be exposed to apt-get command almost from everywhere. The only difference about both of them is aptitude command uninstall the software you don't want as well as the package along it. The apt-get, on the other hand, just uninstall the software for you while leaving the package at /var/cache/apt/archives as it is.

Here is some basic command you might find useful in Applications > Accessories > Terminal.

## Install software from package
sudo aptitude install [package_name]

## Uninstall software and remove the package along with it
sudo aptitude remove [package_name]

## Remove the old packages in /var/cache/apt/archives
sudo aptitude autoclean