How to completely remove a Flatpak, Snap, or AppImage package

Completely remove Flatpak-Snap-Appimage

Until 2016, and still today, the most used package installation system in Ubuntu and its variants is APT packages. It is software that is in repositories and whose components can be distributed in many other packages, also called dependencies. In 2015 the first Flatpak and Snap packages appeared, two types of packages that are much cleaner because they include everything you need in the same package. But how can I completely remove or uninstall this type of software so that there are no residues?

Actually, some users may not be interested in completely uninstalling software, because doing so will also remove its configuration files. Completely removing one of these packages is basically uninstalling it + removing these types of files. As each type of package is different, each one saves these types of files in a path. Below we will explain how to do it in its different and simple processes.

How to completely remove a Flatpak package

The command to remove a package Flatpak it will not be necessary if, as supposed, we have added support for these types of packages to our X-buntu. The command is as follows, but it is worth uninstalling it from the software center of our distribution:

flatpak uninstall --user org.libreoffice.LibreOffice

The example above is about LibreOffice. This will uninstall the main program. Both entering the command and uninstalling from the software center we will delete the folder that has been created in Root / var / lib / flatpak / app. But we would still have to delete the configuration folder that is in Personal folder / .var / app. We remember that the point in front of a folder means that it is hidden, so it is not visible unless we show the hidden files. In most Ubuntu-based distributions this is achieved with the command Ctrl + H.

Completely remove a Snap package

Almost everything we have said about how to remove a Flatpak package can be said about the Snap. You just have to change a few things, such as the command to uninstall a package that would be:

sudo snap remove vlc

The above example is to uninstall the famous VLC media player. Like Flatpak packages, Snap packages also store their own configuration folder, but this is not hidden. We can see it in our personal folder and, you guessed it, its name is "snap." You also have to delete the folder in root / var / snap.

How to uninstall an AppImage

The title of this point is a trick question: a AppImage does not install, so it is not uninstalled. An AppImage is a type of package that we will execute directly from it, that is, once we give it execution permissions, we can launch it by double clicking on it. The "problem" is that if the developer does things the way he should, after consulting us, he will add a shortcut to the start menu of our Linux distribution. This is what we have to eliminate in this type of package but, basically, deleting an AppImage consists of two very simple steps:

  1. Delete the AppImage as we would delete any other file. If you didn't add a shortcut to our start menu, that would be it.
  2. If you added a shortcut to our start menu, we will remove it by deleting the shortcut that was created in Personal folder / .local / share / applications. As we have explained in the Flatpak section, to see the folder .place we will have to make the hidden files show.

It is worth explaining that the path where the shortcuts created by the AppImage are saved is the same as we can save our own .desktop files or some scripts to be able to launch them from the start menu. This is especially useful in operating systems like Ubuntu that no longer allow dragging of these types of files directly to the dock.

It is clear that these types of packages are the future. Although Linus Torvalds wishes there was only one like the APK On Android, a package that contains everything (if it works) will always be better than one that installs dozens of dependencies. In any case, we can always look for this type of application in the Linux AppStore.

Do you already know how to completely remove these next-gen packages?


2 comments, leave yours

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  1.   alexb3d said

    Flatpak has long since been removed like this:
    $ flatpak remove libreoffice -y

    and it installs like this:
    $ flatpak install libreoffice -y

    the "-y" is to accept the installation without asking anything.

    😉

  2.   alexb3d said

    Flatpak has long since been removed like this:
    $ flatpak remove libreoffice -y

    and it installs like this:
    $ flatpak install libreoffice -y

    the "-y" is to accept the installation without asking anything.

    😉