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How to Remove Unused Packages & Save Space in Ubuntu/Kubuntu?


Whenever you install an application in your Linux distribution (say in Kubuntu 20.04) the package manager usually installs other packages with it as they are required to run your application. These packages are called 'dependencies'.

However, when you remove that application there is no guarantee that those packages too will be completely gotten rid of. Over time, these unused packages can occupy your hard disk space if not attended. These days disk space is quite valuable if you have your operating system installed on a smaller but fast SSD, for instance.

The package manager apt used in Kubuntu/Ubuntu does have a built in function that addresses that very issue. It's called 'autoremove'. So once every while you should run this command to remove your installed but unused packages not only to save disk space but also to clean up the system. apt however will notify you of such remaining packages whenever you use it. But if you don't use it that often, then you will have to manually run the command to see if there are such unused packages that are occupying your disk drive's space (as you can see from the screenshot, I have a few packages occupying 390MB space of my SSD already).

To do that open up a terminal ('Konsole' in Kubuntu) window and enter the below command:

sudo apt autoremove

Then follow the instructions on your screen to get rid of them.

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