To remove these configuration files, Synaptic Package Manager have a status filter "Not Installed (residual config)" that can let you easily find these packages. But if you do not have Synaptic installed, a good way to remove all these packages is by using the line below:
$ sudo apt-get remove --purge `dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | awk '{print $2}'`This line of command is explained:
- dpkg -l will list all packages installed in your system.
- grep '^rc' will search for "rc" in the start of each line, which is the status printed out by dpkg meaning "residual config".
- awk '{print $2}' will print out only the second column of the above output. The second column is the name of the packages that should be purged.
- sudo apt-get remove --purge explicitly removes both the packages themselves and the residual configurations of the packages.
