Remove Packages

Soar provides straightforward commands for removing installed packages from your system. This guide covers the removal options, what happens during removal, and troubleshooting tips.

Usage

To remove a package, use the remove command or one of its aliases.

Removing a single package

remove

soar remove <package>

r

soar r <package>

del

soar del <package>

Example: remove 7z.

soar remove 7z

Command options

The remove command supports the following options.

Option	Description
--yes	Skip confirmation prompts. Automatically selects the first option when multiple packages match.
--all	Remove all installed variants of the specified package across different pkg_ids.

Using --yes

Skip interactive prompts when removing packages.

# Remove without confirmation
soar remove --yes 7z

# Automatically select first match when multiple variants exist
soar remove --yes bat

Using --all

Remove all installed variants of a package.

# Remove all versions of bat from all pkg_ids
soar remove --all bat

# Remove with --yes to skip bulk confirmation
soar remove --all --yes cat

Removes every variant

Using --all will remove ALL installed variants of the package, including those from different repositories and pkg_ids. Use with caution.

Removing multiple packages

Remove multiple packages in a single command.

soar remove <package1> <package2> <package3>

Example: remove 7z and bat.

soar remove 7z bat

INFO

If you provide only the package name without a pkg_id and multiple packages match, you will be prompted to select ONE package to remove. Use --all to remove all variants.

Removing a package from a specific pkg_id

soar remove <package>#<pkg_id>

Example: remove cat from the git.busybox.net.busybox.standalone.glibc pkg_id.

soar remove cat#git.busybox.net.busybox.standalone.glibc

Removing all packages from a specific pkg_id

soar remove '<name>#all'

This searches for all pkg_ids that cat is in and prompts you to choose one.

soar remove 'cat#all'

After you select a pkg_id, all packages from that pkg_id will be removed.

What Happens During Removal

When you remove a package, Soar performs these cleanup operations.

1. Pre-Remove Hook (if configured)
2. Binary Symlink Removal from ~/.local/share/soar/bin
3. Provides Symlink Cleanup for alternative names
4. Desktop Entry Removal from ~/.local/share/applications
5. Icon Symlink Cleanup from ~/.local/share/icons
6. Package Directory Removal from ~/.local/share/soar/packages
7. Cache Handling: download cache preserved (use soar clean --cache to reclaim)
8. Database Cleanup: removes the package record and portable entries

Example output:

Removed 7z#upstream.release:official (24.08)
  - Removed binary: ~/.local/share/soar/bin/7z
  - Removed directory: ~/.local/share/soar/packages/7z-24.08
  - Reclaimed 2.3 MiB

Partial vs Complete Removal

Complete removal

A complete removal occurs when:

• The package was successfully installed (is_installed = true)
• All files and symlinks are properly cleaned up
• The package is removed from the database

This is the normal and expected removal process.

Partial removal (broken packages)

A partial or incomplete installation can occur when:

• The installation process was interrupted (network failure, system crash)
• Disk space ran out during installation
• The package was manually deleted from the filesystem

These are marked as broken packages in Soar's database (is_installed = false).

Identifying broken packages

To check for broken or incomplete installations:

soar health

Example output showing broken packages:

Broken Packages (1):
  7z#upstream.release:official /home/user/.local/share/soar/packages/7z-24.08

Removing broken packages

To remove all broken packages:

soar clean --broken

This command:

• Lists all broken packages in the database
• Removes their directories (if they still exist)
• Removes any leftover symlinks
• Cleans up database entries

Troubleshooting

Stuck or incomplete removals

Check system health and fix broken symlinks.

soar health
soar clean --broken-symlinks

Package will not remove

Check file permissions, ensure the package is not running, and use verbose mode.

ls -la ~/.local/share/soar/packages/
pgrep -a <package>
soar --verbose remove <package>

For more help, see Health Check.

Manual cleanup

For manual cleanup of stuck packages:

1. Find the package directory.

   soar info | grep <package>

2. Remove the directory manually.

   rm -rf ~/.local/share/soar/packages/<package-directory>

3. Remove symlinks manually.

   rm -f ~/.local/share/soar/bin/<package>

4. Run a health check.

   soar health

5. Clean up any remaining broken symlinks.

   soar clean --broken-symlinks

Destructive commands

The rm -rf and rm -f commands above permanently delete files. Double-check each path before running them, since there is no undo.