Error removing courier-imap

[diskmaster23]

---

I am trying to remove courier-imap and reinstall courier. However when I run the command apt-get --purge remove courier-imap, I get the error listed below.

What are my options and what can I do to get courier reinstalled?

# apt-get --purge remove courier-imap
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
courier-imap*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 1483kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 33905 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing courier-imap ...
ERR: /usr/sbin/couriertcpd missing
invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-imap, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing courier-imap (--purge):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
ERR: /usr/sbin/couriertcpd missing
invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-imap, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
courier-imap
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[daark.child]

Did you delete any files because the package manager says /usr/sbin/couriertcpd is missing and thats probably why the uninstall script is failing.

[diskmaster23]

That is exactly the problem. I deleted items without uninstalling this. I made a mistake before verifying the packages were uninstalled.

How do I correct the issue?

[daark.child]

Try

#dpkg -r --force --purge courier-imap

[diskmaster23]

I could not use the exact command you gave me, however I tried

dpkg --purge --force-all courier-imap

and

dpkg --remove --force-all courier-imap

I still get the same error.

--------------------Error---------------------
# dpkg --purge --force-all courier-imap
(Reading database ... 33905 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing courier-imap ...
ERR: /usr/sbin/couriertcpd missing
invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-imap, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing courier-imap (--purge):
subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
ERR: /usr/sbin/couriertcpd missing
invoke-rc.d: initscript courier-imap, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
courier-imap

[daark.child]

Maybe you should download the courier-imap deb and force an installation and then deinstall it afterwards.

[diskmaster23]

I'll give that a try and report back.

[diskmaster23]

I found the solution.

Hopefully this solution will help for those of you that stumble upon this problem.

I first edited

vi /var/lib/dpkg/info/courier-imap.postinst

and I added

exit 1

to the top of the file.
What this does, it is tells the some program with apt-get to exit out of the installation script and ignores the info.

After that, I just ran

apt-get remove --purge courier-imap

and I just reinstalled it by using

apt-get install courier-imap

The point of reference for this solution was Forum Ubuntu-fr.org / pb pour deinstaller / reinstaller un logciel

Worked perfectly.