Ubuntu 16.04 I uninstalled apache2 but can't reinstall it now

Question

I have a problem on an ubuntu 16.04 server that I set up. I suspected that I had made a number of errors when I installed and configured apache2 originally because it was not behaving the way it normally does.

I decided to uninstall apache2 completely, including removing the config files, so that I could do a "fresh" installation.

I ran these commands:- service apache2 stop sudo apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2-common sudo apt-get autoremove --purge whereis apache2 rm -Rf /etc/apache2 /usr/lib/apache2 /usr/include/apache2

After the above, I did another whereis and decided to remove more stuff rm -Rf /usr/sbin/apache2 /usr/share/apache2 /usr/share/man/man8/apache2.8.gz

Then everything was gone!

I rebooted the server.

However, when I now say: apt install apache2

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done apache2 is already the newest version (2.4.18-2ubuntu3.9). 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

But I checked and /etc/apache2, etc is gone. It is as if it is telling me apache2 is still there?

I'm confused! Help!

Answer 1

Follow these steps to remove the apache2 service using Terminal:

1. First stop the apache2 service if it is running with: sudo service apache2 stop

2. Now remove and cleanup all the apache2 packages with:

   sudo apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2.2-bin apache2-common
   //or 
   sudo apt-get purge apache2 apache2-utils apache2-bin apache2.2-common
   

3. Finally, run sudo apt-get autoremove just in case any other cleanup in needed

You can do the following two tests to confirm apache has been removed:

1. which apache2 - should return a blank line
2. sudo service apache2 start - should return apache2: unrecognized service

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