How to remove MySQL on Ubuntu or Debian

Last updated on July 15, 2020 by Dan Nanni

First of all, stop MySQL server if it's running.

$ sudo systemctl stop mysql

Or:

$ sudo service mysql stop

If you want to remove MySQL completely, use the following commands. This will uninstall MySQL server/client packages, remove MySQL configuration files, wipe out MySQL data directory (e.g., /var/lib/mysql), and delete mysql user ID. Essentially everything related to MySQL.

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo apt-get autoclean

If you want to remove MySQL related packages only, but keep the rest of MySQL related config and data files, use the following commands instead. This is useful when you are upgrading MySQL.

$ sudo apt-get remove mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo apt-get autoclean

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