Introduction
NGINX is a popular web server that’s renowned for its performance and flexibility. However, there may come a time where you no longer require its services or need to replace it with a different solution. In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps to completely uninstall NGINX from your system. We will cover various methods appropriate for different operating systems. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to clear your system of all traces of NGINX.
Prerequisites
Before starting the uninstallation process, ensure that:
- You have access to a user account with sudo or root privileges.
- You have backed up any critical configuration files or data if you wish to preserve them.
- NGINX is not running, or you have planned for potential downtime of any services relying on it.
Uninstalling NGINX on Ubuntu/Debian-based Distributions
On Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, uninstalling NGINX is managed with the ‘apt-get’ package manager.
sudo apt-get remove nginx nginx-common
This command will remove NGINX and its common files but leave behind configuration files and certain dependencies. To completely remove NGINX along with its configuration files, you can use the ‘purge’ option:
sudo apt-get purge nginx nginx-common
To get rid of any remaining dependencies that are no longer needed, run:
sudo apt-get autoremove
Additionally, check for any remaining NGINX files, such as in ‘/etc/nginx/’ or ‘/var/log/nginx/’, and remove them manually:
sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/
sudo rm -rf /var/log/nginx/
Outputs following these commands will indicate the successful removal of NGINX and related files.
Uninstalling NGINX on Red Hat/CentOS-based Distributions
If you’re running a Red Hat or CentOS-based system, you’ll use ‘yum’ to remove the software:
sudo yum remove nginx
To clean up residual config files and dependencies, you should:
sudo yum autoremove
And again, check manually for any lingering directories and files, then use the ‘rm’ command to remove them:
sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/
sudo rm -rf /var/log/nginx/
Ensure all services that required NGINX have been stopped before executing these commands.
Uninstalling NGINX on Fedora
The newer versions of Fedora utilize ‘dnf’ as the package manager:
sudo dnf remove nginx
Afterward, to ensure all unused dependencies are removed, you should run:
sudo dnf autoremove
Manually inspect directories and clean lingering files as before:
sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/
sudo rm -rf /var/log/nginx/
Confirm all changes by querying ‘dnf’:
sudo dnf list installed | grep nginx
You should see no remaining NGINX packages, indicating a complete uninstall.
Uninstalling NGINX on macOS
If you’ve installed NGINX via Homebrew on macOS, the following command will uninstall the server:
brew uninstall nginx
Homebrew does a good job of cleaning up dependencies, but for manual cleanup, check:
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/etc/nginx/
In the rare case you installed NGINX from source or via other means, you’ll need to delete the directories where NGINX was installed, and check for launch agents or daemons.
Uninstalling NGINX on Windows
For Windows users, NGINX doesn’t come with a built-in uninstaller. Terminate any NGINX processes from the Task Manager, then simply delete the folder where NGINX was installed, typically:
del /s /q C:\nginx
rmdir /s /q C:\nginx
If NGINX was installed as a service, you’d also want to remove the service:
sc delete nginx
Afterward, amend your system environment PATH if necessary and check the Service Management Console (‘services.msc’) to confirm NGINX is no longer listed.
Advanced Cleanup Operations
In some cases, particularly if NGINX was compiled from source or heavily customized, you may need to execute more in-depth cleaning operations. This could involve searching for files associated with NGINX across your system and manually inspecting and purging them. However, these actions should be performed with caution and deep familiarity with your system’s directory structure and configuration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, uninstalling NGINX from your system can be performed cleanly and entirely through command-line operations adjusted for your specific OS packaging tool. Care should always be taken while deleting any additional dependencies and configuration files to not affect the system adversely.
