Ubuntu – Uninstall Python packages built from source

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How do I uninstall Python packages that have been built from source and installed via…

python setup.py build
python setup.py install

Best Answer

If your package provider didn't produce a setup.py uninstall method then, more often than not, you can just manually remove the package from your Python's site-packages directory.

This will be located at /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages or equivalent for your distro and version of Python. Within that there will be either a directory or a .egg file corresponding to the package's name. Simply delete that.

There are some instances where packages will install stuff elsewhere. Django for instance installs django-admin.py to /usr/sbin. Your best bet is to run setup.py install again, make a note of what it is installing where and then cleanup.

Related Solutions

Mysql – How to install MySQLdb on a Python 2.6 source build, on Debian Lenny

Turns out this is extremely easy! I realise now that it builds against whatever version of python you launch setup.py with - in my case I had python symlinked to python2.5

So, instead of running python, run python2.6:

# python2.6 setup.py build
running build
running build_py
creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6
copying _mysql_exceptions.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6
creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.6/MySQLdb
-- snip --

Ubuntu – How to Skip Interactive Post-Install Configuration Steps in APT-GET

You can do a couple of things for avoiding this. Setting the DEBIAN_FRONTEND variable to noninteractive and using -y flag. For example:

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
apt-get -yq install [packagename]

If you need to install it via sudo, use:

sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -yq install [packagename]

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Mysql – How to install MySQLdb on a Python 2.6 source build, on Debian Lenny

Ubuntu – How to Skip Interactive Post-Install Configuration Steps in APT-GET

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