How do I cleanly remove apache2 server on ubuntu server and then reinstall?

Question

I am having some wierd issues with Apache2 server on my ubuntu server. I believe some configuration files may have been tampered with. What is the easiest way to remove apache2 completely from my server. I am aware of how to install by using

sudo apt-get install apache2

but, I just want to make sure I completely remove apache2.

Jeroen Ooms · Answer 1 · 2013-02-17T20:25:22.117

81

First stop your server obviously:

sudo service apache2 stop

Remove apache2 packages and dependencies:

sudo apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2-common
sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

If you manually modified or installed stuff, apt might not remove it. Check what's left:

whereis apache2

Have a look whats inside these directories, and if you're confident you want to trash it, manually remove the directories. In my case:

sudo rm -Rf /etc/apache2 /usr/lib/apache2 /usr/include/apache2

edited Feb 17 '13 at 20:25

answered Dec 27 '11 at 01:50

Jeroen Ooms

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This answer is more complete than the accepted answer. The full sequence of commands is: `sudo service apache2 stop` `sudo apt-get --purge remove apache2` `sudo apt-get remove apache2-common` `sudo apt-get autoremove` `whereis apache2` `apache2: /etc/apache2` `sudo rm -rf /etc/apache2` – Vladimir Tsvetkov Dec 04 '12 at 09:32
Great thorough answer. :-0 – djangofan Dec 04 '12 at 21:57
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This should be marked as the correct answer. Just had loads of trouble with Apache2 and this saved me from reinstall my OS (Linux Mint 14 MATE). Thanks! – Jonathan Komar Mar 01 '13 at 20:48
Simply: "sudo apt-get remove apache2;sudo apt-get autoremove --purge" – diyism Jun 25 '13 at 01:44

score 30 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 07 '18 at 00:21

30

Run the following two commands:

sudo apt-get --purge remove apache2
sudo apt-get remove apache2-common

edited Feb 07 '18 at 00:21

Paul Gear

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answered Sep 17 '10 at 16:41

Rajat

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I did this and I still have `apache2-bin`, `apache2-data`, `apache2-utils`. Aren't these parts of apache2 and therefore should have been deleted when executing what you say? – m4l490n Apr 06 '20 at 18:17

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 23 '20 at 07:54

I think you can try this out.

APACHE_PKGS=`sudo dpkg --get-selections | grep apache | cut -f 1`

In your Terminal then check to see if it's there:

echo $APACHE_PKGS

Should show something like:

apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common and many more. Then you run this command:

sudo apt-get remove --purge $APACHE_PKGS
sudo apt-get install $APACHE_PKGS

And you should be good to go.

How do I cleanly remove apache2 server on ubuntu server and then reinstall?

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