How to delete History of installed packages

Question

I need to delete the Synaptic/Software Center history(commit logs). How can I go about doing this?

Why would you need to do this? Install some porn apps and need to hide them?
But seriously, it is worth being clear why you need to delete it. Installed and removed applications can leave other traces besides the apt/dpkg logs.
I am setting up a laptop for someone extremely nosy. I'd rather they not look at the history and try uninstalling software I installed and trying to reinstall software that I uninstalled. If curiosity killed the cat, perhaps putting the next cat in a cage would keep it alive longer.

Ringtail · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-08 20:43:28Z

up vote 5 down vote accepted

To remove the history.

sudo rm -rf ~/var/log/apt/history.log /var/log/dpkg.log

I would advise to make a backup just in case! That can be done by

mkdir ~/apt-logs
sudo cp ~/var/log/{dpkg,apt/history}.log ~/apt-logs

You also need /var/log/dpkg.log

edited Dec 8 '12 at 20:43

answered Feb 29 '12 at 22:08

Ringtail
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1

You also need /var/log/dpkg.log. – poolie Feb 29 '12 at 23:15

Thanks for the backup @poolie – Ringtail Mar 1 '12 at 0:13

1 Answer