How To remove orphan dependencies in arch linux

So you’ve been installing and removing packages on Arch, and now you want to clean up the leftovers. Let’s go step by step.

Remove a Package with Its Dependencies

If a package was installed normally via pacman, you can remove it along with the dependencies it pulled in like this:

sudo pacman -Rns <package name>

-R → remove package

-n → don’t back up configs (.pacsave won’t be created)

-s → remove dependencies that are not required by anything else

Remove a Package + Config Files (Nuke It)

If you also want to remove the package’s configuration files (completely wipe it), add -c:

sudo pacman -Rcns <package name>

⚠️ Warning: this is more risky — it will delete configs under /etc/... and you won’t get them back.

List Orphan Packages

Orphaned packages are those no longer required by anything else. To list them:

pacman -Qdt

Q → query

d → list orphans

t → “not required by any package”

If you want to list just the package names (for scripting):

pacman -Qdtq

-q → just output names

With Yay

Since yay is an AUR helper that wraps pacman, you can do the same:

yay -Qdt
yay -Qdtq

Remove Orphan Packages

To remove all orphaned packages at once:

sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qdtq)

And with yay:

sudo pacman -Rns $(yay -Qdtq)

its so cool right ? 😀

Clean the Package Cache

Finally, you can free up some disk space by clearing cached packages that are no longer installed:

sudo pacman -Sc

If you want to go nuclear and wipe all cached packages (even the ones still installed), you can do:

sudo pacman -Scc

⚠️ Be careful — this means you won’t be able to downgrade packages easily.

Quick Reference Table

Command	What it does	Configs
-Rs	Remove package + deps, keep configs (creates .pacsave)	Kept + backup
-Rns	Remove package + deps, keep configs (no backup)	Kept
-Rcns	Remove package + deps + configs (no backup)	Deleted

Pro Tip

Before removing a package, you can check what would be removed without actually doing it:

pacman -Rcns <package-name> --print

This can save you from nuking half your desktop environment by mistake 😅.

🎉 That’s it! With these commands, you can keep your Arch install nice and clean.

Happy Arch-ing 😀