re-posted from: http://linuxprograms.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/remove-packages-marked-rc/

Let’s see all the packages marked as rc by dpkg. Know more about the state rc. This state means that the configuration files are not yet removed. You can see how a single package can be removed.

$ dpkg –list |grep “^rc”
rc bsh 2.0b4-10ubuntu2 Java scripting environment (BeanShell) Versi
rc devicekit-disks 007-2ubuntu6 abstraction for enumerating block devices
rc devicekit-power 011-1ubuntu2 abstraction for power management
rc dvipdfmx 1:20090115-1.2 A DVI to PDF translator with CJK support
rc gnome-blackjack 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu3 Blackjack casino card game
rc groovy 1.6.4-4ubuntu2 Agile dynamic language for the Java Virtual
rc kdepim-runtime-data 4:4.3.2-0ubuntu1 shared data files for the KDE 4 base runtime
Let’s extract out the packages marked as rc

$ dpkg –list |grep “^rc” | cut -d ” ” -f 3
bsh
devicekit-disks
devicekit-power
dvipdfmx
gnome-blackjack
groovy
kdepim-runtime-data
Now let’s remove all the packages marked as rc.

$ dpkg –list |grep “^rc” | cut -d ” ” -f 3 | xargs sudo dpkg –purge

[sudo] password for abcde:
(Reading database … 239389 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing bsh …
Purging configuration files for bsh …
Removing devicekit-disks …
Purging configuration files for devicekit-disks …
Removing devicekit-power …
Purging configuration files for devicekit-power …
dpkg: warning: while removing devicekit-power, directory ‘/var/lib/DeviceKit-power’ not empty so not removed.
Removing dvipdfmx …
Purging configuration files for dvipdfmx …
Removing gnome-blackjack …
Purging configuration files for gnome-blackjack …
Removing groovy …
Purging configuration files for groovy …
Removing kdepim-runtime-data …
Purging configuration files for kdepim-runtime-data …
Removing kdepim-runtime-libs4 …
See how we have used xargs and the command dpkg –purge in combination.