Reinstalling KMail

[barraclm]

I have major problems with my KMail/KDEPIM/ installation.

Neither Muon or Discover will do it.

How do I reinstall?

[GreyGeek]

In another msg about installing akonadicontrol you were in the 17.04 subfotum. This is the 16.10 subforum.

Which release are you using?
First, don’t uninstall them ... PURGE KMail & KDEPIM & akonadi. That gets rid of the config files too.
Then, logout or reboot and log in.
Uncheck any PPA you’ve added that might contain versions of those packages that are new than what is in the original installed system.

Run “sudo apt autoremove”.
Using muon install KMail and KDEPIM


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[barraclm]

In another msg about installing akonadicontrol you were in the 17.04 subfotum. This is the 16.10 subforum.

Which release are you using?
First, don’t uninstall them ... PURGE KMail & KDEPIM & akonadi. That gets rid of the config files too.
Then, logout or reboot and log in.
Uncheck any PPA you’ve added that might contain versions of those packages that are new than what is in the original installed system.

Run “sudo apt autoremove”.
Using muon install KMail and KDEPIM

Apologies - made a mistake. I am using 17.04

Don't want to purge as I am unsure how much configuration/data I will lose.

I finally decided that Muon was messed up - too many silly responses about why it couldn't install. I purged and reinstalled Muon - still got silly messages. Next step was to reinstall KDE-desktop. After that Muon installed KMail and Akonadi Console without a murmur and they both seem to work.

Thanks for all the ideas.

[claydoh]

For reference, purging does not remove any local user settings or data (data stored in your users' home dir), so it is not harmful for most things.

This is also why simply uninstalling or purging then reinstalling software on Linux usually does not fix or reset things as it can in Windows.

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[GreyGeek]

For reference, purging does not remove any local user settings or data (data stored in your users' home dir), so it is not harmful for most things.

This is also why simply uninstalling or purging then reinstalling software on Linux usually does not fix or reset things as it can in Windows.

Don't know about Windows but I've used the purge parameter for years to remove even the config files.
From the man

remove
           remove is identical to install except that packages are removed instead of installed. [B]Note that removing a package  leaves its configuration files on the [I]system[/I].[/B] If a plus sign is appended to the package name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be installed instead of removed.

       purge
           purge is identical to remove except that packages are removed and purged ([B]any[/B] configuration files are deleted too).

https://websetnet.com/using-apt-get-...ginners-guide/

What is the difference between apt-get remove and apt-get purge?

• apt-get remove just removes the binaries of a package. It doesn’t touch the configuration files
• apt-get purge removes everything related to a package including the configuration files

So if you have ‘remove’ a particular software and install it again, your system will have the same configuration files. Of course, you will be asked to override the existing configuration files when you install it again.
Purge is particularly useful when you have messed up with the configuration of a program. You want to completely erase its traces from the system and perhaps start afresh.

AFAIK, that property of purge has not changed since I began using apt-get or apt.

[oshunluvr]

AFAIK, "purge" removes system configuration files, not user settings. No system level program should reach into a users' home directory that way. As Clay hints to; often the Linux solution is for the user to wipe their configuration within their home folder to repair a problem.

Even purge can fail to completely remove everything if a non-standard change has been made to a program's data or folders at the system level - like a user adding a file or subfolder within a program's folders.

[kubicle]

AFAIK, "purge" removes system configuration files, not user settings.

You are correct,."Purge" will remove the system conffiles, not user configuration (linux was created to be a multiuser system, and users would be pretty miffed if maintenance/upgrades etc. performed by admins would regularly remove their configuration files, which is why package management as a general rule won't touch user $HOMEs).

Each package may have files designated as "conffiles" (usually these are under /etc) and whether these "conffiles" get removed depends on whether you use "remove" (don't remove conffiles) or "purge" (remove conffiles). You can inspect the "conffiles" of a package by running "cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/<package>.conffiles" (for example, to check the list of conffiles for package "abcde", one would run "cat /var/lib/dpkg/info/abcde.conffiles"...you can of course also open the file in a text editor, if you prefer).

[GreyGeek]

I'm wrong. I deleted geany a few weeks ago and I notice just now, while checking, that it is still under the .config directory.

The man pages for apt & apt-get purge should be rewritten, because "any" means any and "everything" means everything. I'm still using English, aren't I

[kubicle]

I'm wrong. I deleted geany a few weeks ago and I notice just now, while checking, that it is still under the .config directory.
The man pages for apt & apt-get purge should be rewritten, because "any" means any and "everything" means everything. I'm still using English, aren't I

I agree it could be worded better on the man pages, as it can be confusing.

The "configuration files" basically means "files designated as conffiles included in the package, not including (configuration) files created by installation scripts or user specific (configuration) files that are not created during the installation of the package" (which would of course be more accurate, but rather cumbersome).

The man page for of the underlying dpkg (which apt[-get] uses for the actual installation/removal) is a bit more descriptive:

-r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
Remove an installed package. This removes everything except conffiles, which may avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled
later (conffiles are configuration files that are listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles control file). If -a or --pending is given instead of a
package name, then all packages unpacked, but marked to be removed in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed.

-P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes everything, including conffiles. If -a or --pending is given instead of a pack‐
age name, then all packages unpacked or removed, but marked to be purged in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.

Note: some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg because they are created and handled separately through the configuration scripts. In
that case, dpkg won't remove them by itself, but the package's postrm script (which is called by dpkg), has to take care of their removal
during purge. Of course, this only applies to files in system directories, not configuration files written to individual users' home directo‐
ries.

[GreyGeek]

Since, on every Linux distro I've used during the last 19 years, only someone with admin privileges can add or remove an app, what justification is there for leaving user config files behind as detritus when the admin is clearly wanting to purge the package (by virtue of using the purge command), regardless of how many users the system has?

[kubicle]

Since, on every Linux distro I've used during the last 19 years, only someone with admin privileges can add or remove an app, what justification is there for leaving user config files behind as detritus when the admin is clearly wanting to purge the package (by virtue of using the purge command), regardless of how many users the system has?

Well...users "own" their $HOME. They can, if they so choose, build and/or install software under their $HOME (users may, for example, install newer versions of software that is installed in the system)...removing user configuration just because system installed software changes makes no sense (also, user configuration is not created during installation, so apt/dpkg has no way of keeping track of what it could remove).