How do I uninstall ffmpeg?

uninstall ffmpeg

54,166

For reasons discussed in this question, the "ffmpeg" in Ubuntu 12.04 is actually provided by the libav-tools package; that's why removing the ffmpeg package seemingly does nothing.

To really remove it:

sudo apt-get --purge remove libav-tools
sudo apt-get --purge autoremove

Note: The contents of the 2.2 kB ffmpeg package deb file as provided by libav simply pulls in libav as dependencies...

54,166

gentrobot

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

gentrobot almost 2 years
I am using ubuntu 12.04. I had installed ffmpeg a while ago (so don't clearly remember whether it was from source or repo). Now, I am unable to uninstall it. I have tried the followin:
```
$ sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg

$ sudo apt-get purge ffmpeg
```
I tried to find ffmpeg directory by issuing the following command:
```
$ find / -name 'ffmpeg' -type d
```
This gave me /home//ffmpeg. When I changed to the directory, I found ffmpeg and ffmpeg1, however "sudo make uninstall" didn't work for both the places and threw an error "make: * No rule to make target `uninstall'. Stop.". That, I suppose, would mean that it was not the source from which ffmpeg was (if) compiled.

When I issue the following command:
```
$ffmpeg -version
```
I get:
```
ffmpeg version 0.8.3-4:0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the Libav developers
  built on Jun 12 2012 16:37:58 with gcc 4.6.3
*** THIS PROGRAM IS DEPRECATED ***
This program is only provided for compatibility and will be removed in a future release. Please use avconv instead.
ffmpeg 0.8.3-4:0.8.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
libavutil    51. 22. 1 / 51. 22. 1
libavcodec   53. 35. 0 / 53. 35. 0
libavformat  53. 21. 0 / 53. 21. 0
libavdevice  53.  2. 0 / 53.  2. 0
libavfilter   2. 15. 0 /  2. 15. 0
libswscale    2.  1. 0 /  2.  1. 0
libpostproc  52.  0. 0 / 52.  0. 0
```
- Sanam Patel almost 12 years
  
  Someone will probably post a one-line command that will fix it for you, but you might try using Synaptic and mark ffmpeg for 'complete removal'. This usually works pretty well for removing programs.
- gentrobot almost 12 years
  
  @TomBrossman: Thanks for the help ! I shall try your suggestion and shall update the result here.
- gentrobot almost 12 years
  
  @TomBrossman: In the Synaptics Manager, when I searched for "ffmpeg", the installed packages that appear are: chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra, librtmp0, winff, gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg. Should I remove them all ?
- Sanam Patel almost 12 years
  
  No Idea. It isn't going to break your system so try it. If you have audio playback issues just re-add them.
gentrobot almost 12 years

Thanks ! That worked. And +1 for the link that made me understand more about Ubuntu 12.04's ffmpeg
Nathan about 6 years

hi @ish, is this still true for Ubuntu 16.04?