When migrating from Debian/Ubuntu to CentOS/RHEL systems, one notable difference is package cleanup behavior. While apt-get purge removes both packages and configuration files, yum remove intentionally preserves configuration files by design.

The closest native YUM equivalent would be:

yum remove package_name
rm -rf /etc/packagename/

However, this requires manual tracking of configuration locations. A more systematic approach:

First, identify all configuration files associated with a package:

rpm -qc package_name

Example output for httpd:

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-base.conf
/etc/sysconfig/httpd

Combine these commands for a purge-like operation:

# Remove package
yum remove package_name

# Remove config files
rpm -ql package_name | grep -E "/etc/|/var/" | xargs rm -rf

# Clean up orphaned dependencies
package-cleanup --quiet --leaves | xargs yum remove -y

If using CentOS 8+ or RHEL 8+ with dnf:

dnf remove --remove-leaves package_name

• Always back up important configuration files before removal
• Be cautious with wildcard deletions in system directories
• Some applications may store configurations in unexpected locations (check /var/lib/)

For frequent purges, consider creating a custom RPM that handles cleanup during removal:

%postun
if [ $1 -eq 0 ]; then
    rm -rf /etc/yourapp/
    rm -rf /var/lib/yourapp/
fi

Coming from Debian/Ubuntu to RHEL/CentOS, many admins miss the apt-get purge functionality when working with yum. While yum remove removes the package, it intentionally keeps configuration files in place - a design difference from Debian's approach.
For a true purge equivalent, we need to use rpm directly:


# Remove package and all config files

rpm -e --nodeps package_name

find / -name "*package_name*" -exec rm -rf {} \;


However, this brute-force method isn't recommended as it might remove files that belong to other packages.
The safest method is using yum-utils which provides enhanced package management functions:


# Install yum-utils if not present

yum install yum-utils

# Completely remove package and configs

package-cleanup --leaves | xargs yum remove -y


Let's walk through a real-world scenario of purging MariaDB completely:


# First remove normally

yum remove mariadb-server

# Then clean up residual files

rm -rf /var/lib/mysql

rm -rf /etc/my.cnf

rm -rf /etc/my.cnf.d


For more thorough cleanup, create a custom script:


#!/bin/bash

PKG=$1

yum remove -y $PKG

find /etc -name "*$PKG*" -exec rm -rf {} \;

find /var/lib -name "*$PKG*" -exec rm -rf {} \;

find /var/log -name "*$PKG*" -exec rm -rf {} \;


Before purging, consider backing up configs:


# Create timestamped backup

mkdir -p /root/backups/$(date +%Y%m%d)

find /etc -name "*package_name*" -exec cp -a {} /root/backups/$(date +%Y%m%d) \;


Sometimes a cleaner approach is to rebuild the server or use containers:


# Using Docker for clean environments

docker run -it centos:7

yum install package_name