On Sunday 14 July 2019 20:02:27 Felix Miata wrote:
> Mike Bird composed on 2019-07-14 19:28 (UTC-0700):
> > Felix Miata wrote:
> >> Is it normal for non-iis not to be reduced to 0? How to get rid of the
> >> numerous rcs?
> >
> > dpkg --purge ...
>
> # dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | wc -l
> 125
> # dpkg --purge ...
> dpkg: error: --purge needs a valid package name but '...' is not: illegal
> package name in specifier '...': must start with an alphanumeric character
>
> Type dpkg --help for help about installing and deinstalling packages [*];
> Use 'apt' or 'aptitude' for user-friendly package management;
> Type dpkg -Dhelp for a list of dpkg debug flag values;
> Type dpkg --force-help for a list of forcing options;
> Type dpkg-deb --help for help about manipulating *.deb files;
>
> Options marked [*] produce a lot of output - pipe it through 'less' or
> 'more' ! #
>
> Surely there must be a way that doesn't involve finding and typing 125
> package names.

I generally install from saved packages (rather than waiting for downloads, or 
worrying about why servers are down, etc.); so there *is* a way, sort of, but 
I don't see how it could be adapted to work for you ... because, because ... 

When I install, I use the command 
sudo dpkg -i -E -G /media/<location>/*.deb 
but I want to install all packages in a selected folder. 

To purge, the reverse ought to work, of course, at least in theory: 
sudo dpkg --purge /media/<location>/*.deb 
but you need some way to limit the choices available, without listing all 125 
pkgs. 

Bill