How do I find the package name for an application that I want to uninstall?

Question

I tried

sudo apt-get --purge remove snipe2d

But I guess 'snipe2d' isn't the name of the game....so how do I find out what it is and how to put it into my terminal?

P.S. this is what it says when I put in the above code:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package snipe2d

EDIT: The official name of the game in question is: orbital eunuchs sniper

What's the name of the package that you installed? – MBraedley Jan 12 '14 at 03:22 — MBraedley, Jan 12 '14 at 03:22

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 12 '14 at 03:31

Open the Software Center page for the application.
Scroll down to "Version".
The package name is the part before the first space in the version.
In your case, it is orbital-eunuchs-sniper.
You can then do whatever you want with it, e.g.:
```
sudo apt-get remove orbital-eunuchs-sniper
```

Alternatively, if you know the path to a file which executes the application, you can also do

dpkg -S /path/to/file

This will print all packages which contain that file.

Example:

$ dpkg -S apt-get
bash-completion: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/slapt-get
apt: /usr/bin/apt-get
apt: /usr/share/man/es/man8/apt-get.8.gz
bash-completion: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/apt-get
apt: /usr/share/man/de/man8/apt-get.8.gz
apt: /usr/share/man/pt/man8/apt-get.8.gz
apt: /usr/share/man/pl/man8/apt-get.8.gz
apt: /usr/share/man/fr/man8/apt-get.8.gz
apt: /usr/share/man/man8/apt-get.8.gz
apt: /usr/share/man/ja/man8/apt-get.8.gz

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '14 at 03:28

I think you should have more luck using apt-cache search

apt-cache search snipe                 
esniper - simple, lightweight tool for sniping ebay auctions
orbital-eunuchs-sniper - anti-terrorist, pro-Eunuchs, satellite sniping game
orbital-eunuchs-sniper-data - game data files for the game Orbital Eunuchs Sniper

That will tell you all packages that has in it's description. Then you can do sudo apt-get remove:

sudo apt-get remove orbital-eunuchs-sniper orbital-eunuchs-sniper-data

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:32

2

If you installed the game in the Software Center, you can just:

Go to the Software Center.
Search for it using terms similar to what it was called in the Software Center (which is often not the same as the actual package name).
Uninstall it in the Software Center.

You never even have to know what the package is called.

^{(This seems to address the actual goal in the question, though answers about searching packages would be good too.)}

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:32

Community

1

answered Jan 12 '14 at 03:28

Eliah Kagan

117,780

Yeah I did install it in Software Center...but i'm also new and I want to the hang of using the terminal. Thank You! – Collin Blatt Jan 12 '14 at 03:31
1

@CollinBlatt take a look at Braim's answer... apt-cache is my favorite. – arsaKasra Jan 15 '14 at 07:36

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 12 '14 at 14:22

1

If you did not use Software Center, use

dpkg -S $(which snipe2d)

See also my blog on dpkg: http://www.linuxintro.org/wiki/Dpkg

answered Jan 12 '14 at 14:22

Thorsten Staerk

159
6

which is not required. Just dpkg -S snipe2d will work as well if you don't mind some more results. – kiri Jan 14 '14 at 20:44

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 12 '14 at 03:25

0

You can install apt-file, which keeps a database of all the files every package provides, then you can use apt-file /path/to/snipe2d to see which package provides that file, which you can then remove with apt-get remove

answered Jan 12 '14 at 03:25

DopeGhoti

733
4
11

1

I think dpkg -S /path/to/snipe2d will be lot easier. – Braiam Jan 12 '14 at 04:13

How do I find the package name for an application that I want to uninstall?

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