Package: sbcl Version: 1:0.9.3.72-1 This may be more relevant to common-lisp-controller, and if so, sorry. I'm not familiar with the Common Lisp packages enough to understand the details of what happens. When I test sbcl installation and uninstallation with piuparts, I get the following error: 0m13.8s ERROR: Package purging left files on system: /var/cache/common-lisp-controller owned by: common-lisp-controller /var/cache/common-lisp-controller/root the .../root file seems to be created by sbcl or common-lisp-controller when the packages are installed, and not deleted in prerm, meaning that dpkg can't remove the cache directory, thus leaving cruft on the filesystem. I hope this is helpful. Happy hacking.