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G Dube
Asked: 2021-03-10 06:17:53 +0800 CST

How to check the files of an installed application?

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I installed FileZilla, gnome-sushi, Cisco anyconnect etc, but my Downloads folder is full of Folders of those applications, I want to start a cleanup process by removing folders in the Downloads directory but I am not sure if those applications are reliant on those folders. I don't remember the procedure I used to install them, it was some time ago.

What I can do is see which applications are installed via:

for app in /usr/share/applications/*.desktop; do echo "${app:24:-8}"; done

But what I want to do is remove certain folders without affecting the application: enter image description here

uninstall

2 Answers

  1. You can safely delete anything in the Downloads folder if you installed software the regular way, i.e. using Software center or using sudo apt install or snap install, or using Synaptic package manager.

    If you installed software your own way, or manually, then only you can know what you installed where, so what to delete or not. No one here can help until they see the details of every application and the install procedure.

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  2. Everything in your home directory belongs to you, not to the system, so yes, it is safe to delete files anywhere in your home directory and its subdirectories. The system package manager (apt or at the lower level dpkg) will never install any system files to your home directory.

    You can get more insights about what files are installed via the package manager with this:

    That shows the installed files of each package (all or those that you specify) and, conversely, the files in system directories that do not belong to a software package, i.e. unpackaged files.

    User home directories are explicitly excluded in that view because the package manager never installs any files to them.

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