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8.2.5. Removing Packages

Similarly to package installation, Yum allows you to uninstall (remove in RPM and Yum terminology) both individual packages and a package group.

Removing Individual Packages

To uninstall a particular package, as well as any packages that depend on it, run the following command as root:
yum remove package_name
As when you install multiple packages, you can remove several at once by adding more package names to the command. For example, to remove totem, rhythmbox, and sound-juicer, type the following at a shell prompt:
~]# yum remove totem rhythmbox sound-juicer
Similar to install, remove can take these arguments:
  • package names
  • glob expressions
  • file lists
  • package provides

Warning

Yum is not able to remove a package without also removing packages which depend on it. This type of operation can only be performed by RPM, is not advised, and can potentially leave your system in a non-functioning state or cause applications to misbehave and/or crash. For further information, see Section B.2.4, “Uninstalling” in the RPM chapter.

Removing a Package Group

You can remove a package group using syntax congruent with the install syntax:
yum groupremove group
yum remove @group
The following are alternative but equivalent ways of removing the KDE Desktop group:
~]# yum groupremove "KDE Desktop"
~]# yum groupremove kde-desktop
~]# yum remove @kde-desktop

Important

When you tell yum to remove a package group, it will remove every package in that group, even if those packages are members of other package groups or dependencies of other installed packages. However, you can instruct yum to remove only those packages which are not required by any other packages or groups by adding the groupremove_leaf_only=1 directive to the [main] section of the /etc/yum.conf configuration file. For more information on this directive, see Section 8.4.1, “Setting [main] Options”.