What is the advantage of using sudo apt-get autoremove over a cleaner app?

what sudo apt-get autoremove actually does

Whenever you install an application (using apt-get) the system will also install the software that this application depends on. It is common in Ubuntu/Linux that applications share the same libraries. When you remove the application the dependency will stay on your system.

So apt-get autoremove will remove those dependencies that were installed with applications and are no longer used by anything else on the system.

is there any advantages of using this command over something like Bleachbit or Ubuntu Tweak janitor?

  • Bleachbit or Ubuntu Tweak janitor are graphical interfaces.
  • sudo apt-get autoremove is a command

Using one option does not exclude the other: I would assume BB and UTJ use sudo apt-get autoremove (in some sort of way) to remove dependencies. So it is not a question of "any advantages." It is a matter of preference: are you a command line type of person or are you a GUI type of person?

By the way: deborphan is another tool to clean your system.


One minor addition: Since 14.04 you may actually write apt autoremove to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no longer needed as dependencies.

These two commands are equivalent:

  • apt autoremove
  • apt-get autoremove