Description of problem: Running "yum remove <pkg>" doesn't clean up the dependencies for <pkg>. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): yum-2.6.0-1 How reproducible: Always. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Ensure xemacs not installed. 2. yum -y install xemacs This installs the following packages, due to xemacs dependencies: Canna-libs FreeWnn-libs neXtaw xemacs xemacs-common xemacs-sumo 3. yum remove xemacs Actual results: The xemacs package is removed. However, the following packages are not removed, even though clearly they are not required by any other package on the system: Canna-libs FreeWnn-libs neXtaw xemacs-common xemacs-sumo Expected results: I would have expected all the packages that xemacs depends on, and which are not required by other packages, to be removed. Additional info:
yum remove <pkg> does remove all things that depend on package, but not vice versa as there's no real way to know that nothing else on the system (including things built or installed by hand) don't depend on them. If you install the yum-utils package, there is a utility called package-cleanup which can help you to find leaf node packages and remove them.