How to completely remove MySQL from my system?

Question

I want to completely remove MySQL from my system, including databases, settings, logs, journals, etc.

How can I do it?

Update/Note: The MySQL was installed using the following terminal commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server
sudo mysql_secure_installation

OS Name: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
OS Mode: Live USB drive with persistent storage
MySQL version: mysql Ver 8.0.20

How you uninstall/remove something depends entirely upon how you originally installed it. Please edit your question to include that information — user535733, Aug 25, 2020 at 20:09

Promise Preston · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-01 15:07:24Z

As you already know how you installed it and what version you're working with, you can do the following:

Stop the MySQL service:

sudo systemctl stop mysqld

Purge MySQL, databases, and configurations:

sudo apt purge mysql-server mysql-common mysql-server-core-* mysql-client-core-*

Remove any additional database files:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/

The folder where the configuration was and any stranglers:

sudo rm -rf /etc/mysql/

Clean the logs:

sudo rm -rf /var/log/mysql

Delete the user-generated during installation:

sudo deluser --remove-home mysql

Finally, get rid of the usergroup that was created during installation:

sudo delgroup mysql

That should get rid of everything. If you installed a third-party PPA in order to install MySQL then you'll need to remove that.

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:theppayouused/ppa

And that should be everything related to MySQL and nothing else.

sudo delgroup mysql returns this message /usr/sbin/delgroup: mysql' still has mysql' as their primary group! — BlueSkies, Sep 3, 2020 at 21:21
Check less /etc/passwd and see if you have mysql users. If so, you'll need to remove them. Worst case, the existence of the group won't cause any major issues by simply existing. — KGIII, Sep 3, 2020 at 21:36

Community · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-25 19:18:39Z

This is what I did, in ubuntu terminal i located mysql by typing in

which mysqld

For which I got an output

/usr/sbin/mysql

Further mysql was inside lampp as well, i located it by

mysql -u root -p -h 127.0.0.1 -e "select @@socket"

For which I got an output

/opt/lampp/var/mysql/mysql.sock

Then i typed in

sudo -i

and pressed enter to open as root, after which I typed in and removed mysql in one location

sudo rm -rf /usr/sbin/mysql

Did a restart. and again opened as root in ubuntu terminal and typed in location of mysql inside lampp

sudo rm -rf /opt/lampp/var/mysql/mysql

Again did a system restart.Next in terminal i typed in

mysql

I got the output mysql cannot be located, for reassurance purpose I typed in

which mysqld

No output, mysql has been uninstalled

2 Answers 2