astral-sh/uv

A way to remove old Python versions

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#15805 opened on Sep 12, 2025

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 (3 comments) (7 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (84,934 stars) (3,111 forks)batch import
enhancementhelp wanted

Description

Summary

After using uv to install all active Python versions and keep them updated for a while, I found my ~/.local/share/uv/python directory consuming 3GB. This includes many versions I won't use again, like the alpha and beta versions of 3.14.

I couldn't find an easy way to remove all but the latest version of each Python (including freethreading variants), so I found it easier to blast them all away with uv python uninstall --all and then re-running my automated install process (using Ansible).

This clearout saved me ~2.3GB of disk space.

This is a bit unintuitive and wastes time and bandwidth. It would be nicer if there were a way to prune down the installed Python versions to just the latest of each release, or something like that.

Example

$ uv python uninstall --outdated
Searching for Python installations
Uninstalled 7 outdated Python versions in 14.45s:
 - cpython-3.9.20-macos-aarch64-none
 - cpython-3.9.21-macos-aarch64-none
 - cpython-3.9.22-macos-aarch64-none
...

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rustpython
Domain
cli
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Rust programmingFamiliarity with uv's codebase
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
The user proposes a `uv python uninstall outdated` feature to automatically remove old Python versions. To implement this, one should examine uv's Python installation management code, likely in the `cli/python` module or similar. The feature requires detecting installed versions and determining the latest per release. Existing comments in the issue discuss potential edge cases like free threading variants.