Undo update-alternatives

Question

I had to run the command sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 20, but unfortunately I misstyped and wrote sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gccc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 20 (so gccc instead of gcc).

Now, when trying to run the regular command, it tells me the alternative link /usr/bin/gcc is allready managed by gcccc.

I've searched around but haven't found a solution yet.

Solution

Do sudo update-alternatives --remove-all gccc.

Comments

[Dale Anderson]

If you're using this method to, say, fix a botched python or php alternative, you'll need to restore an alternative with --set or --install after removal. As you'd expect, --remova-all, disconnects all links to whatever package you're working with, leaving you with none in your PATH.

[Boris Verkhovskiy]

I also had to do sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.7 3 and sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.7 to restore my 19.04 system back to what it was (I hope).