How to remove rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb in ubuntu 16.04 linux machine

$ sudo apt-get remove rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb'

2 Answers

Guess here that you installed rstudio-server by downloading it from an external source and then installing it using dpkg or GDebi. So, you are trying to remove it using the command:

sudo apt-get remove rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb

But, rstudio-server-1.0.143-amd64.deb is the name of the file. The software is installed as: rstudio-server. So, the correct command will be:

sudo apt-get remove --purge rstudio-server

Visit the question How can I reproduce the error "package... needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it" for testing? and go to the How to manage broken packages section of the answer:

3. Try to remove the offending package, by force if necessary. You have to be very careful here as you can force the removal of a critical package or, worse, a set of critical packages.

   The following commands go from polite to less polite to outright force. Try them in order.

   sudo dpkg --remove $broken_package
   sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq $broken_package
   sudo dpkg --remove --force-all $broken_package

I hope that will help somebody. It worked for me.