Uninstall

Do the in-app step first

Deleting rexenv does not uninstall it, on any platform. rexenv installs system-level things that removing the app cannot reach, and once the app is gone there is no button left to remove them.

macOS

What deleting the app would leave behind

• A root LaunchDaemon running the edge proxy on ports 80 and 443.
• /etc/resolver/* files for every dev TLD you used.
• rexenv’s local certificate authority, trusted, in your login keychain.
• The always-on DNS agent.

None of those are harmful, but they are invisible, they survive reboots, and one of them keeps holding port 443.

Uninstall

1. In rexenv: Settings → Remove system changes.

   One admin prompt. It removes the edge daemon, the resolver files, the DNS agent, and both the CA’s trust setting and the CA certificate itself from your login keychain.

2. Delete rexenv.app from Applications — or, if you installed with Homebrew:

   brew uninstall --cask rexenv
   brew untap rexenv/tap

3. Optionally, remove your data:

   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/dev.rexenv.rexenv/

   and, separately, your sites in ~/rexenv/Sites.

Check both folders before deleting them

~/rexenv/Sites holds your site files unless you moved the Sites folder. The data folder holds your databases and every downloaded component. Look inside each before you remove it.

Linked sites are the exception in your favour: rexenv serves those folders in place and never copies or deletes them, so a linked project is untouched by any of this.

Windows

What removing the app would leave behind

• The .rex NRPT rule (and one per extra TLD you configured).
• The \rexenv\dns-agent scheduled task, which starts the DNS answerer at logon.
• Certificate authority trust in your user’s Root store.
• The rex copy under %LOCALAPPDATA%\rexenv\bin, and its entry on your user Path.

None of those are harmful, but they are invisible, they survive reboots, and the first two keep answering .rex for a program that is no longer installed.

Uninstall

1. In rexenv: Settings → Remove system changes.

   One UAC prompt. It removes the NRPT rules, the scheduled task, the CA trust, and the rex copy with its Path entry.

2. Remove the app: Settings → Apps → Installed apps → rexenv → Uninstall, or run uninstall.exe in the install directory.

3. Optionally, remove your data:

   Remove-Item -Recurse "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\rexenv"

   and, separately, your sites in %USERPROFILE%\rexenv\Sites.

Step 1 first — the uninstaller cannot remove the .rex rule or the certificate

Removing those two needs administrator approval, which the uninstaller does not ask for; it tells you they are still there when it finishes. Only Remove system changes takes them away.

The scheduled task is different since the latest release: its uninstaller closes rexenv, then ends and deletes \rexenv\dns-agent itself, so the DNS answerer no longer outlives the app. An uninstaller from an older setup.exe does not. Run alone, the task started the answerer again within a minute — rexenv.exe was in use when the uninstaller reached it, stayed on disk, and kept answering .rex on port 53 for an app that was otherwise gone (measured on a Windows 11 VM, 21 September 2026). If that has already happened: reinstall rexenv, run step 1, then uninstall again.

Check both folders before deleting them

%USERPROFILE%\rexenv\Sites holds your site files unless you moved the Sites folder. %LOCALAPPDATA%\rexenv\rexenv\data holds your databases and every downloaded component. Look inside each before you remove it.

Linked sites are the exception in your favour: rexenv serves those folders in place and never copies or deletes them, so a linked project is untouched by any of this.

Linux

What removing the package would leave behind

• The .rex DNS route — the rexenv0 link, its root unit rexenv-dns-route.service, and a marker under /etc/rexenv/dns.d/ for every TLD you configured.
• The edge unit, rexenv-edge.service, running Caddy as root on ports 80 and 443 from /usr/local/lib/rexenv/ — and systemd restarts it if it dies.
• Certificate authority trust in the system store and in your browsers’ own databases.
• The DNS agent, a user unit started at every sign-in.

None of those are harmful, but they are invisible, they survive reboots, and the edge keeps holding port 443 for a program that is no longer installed.

Uninstall

1. In rexenv: Settings → Remove system changes.

   One password dialog, for the DNS route, the edge unit with its root folder, the CA in the system store and the rex link if you made one. The browsers’ copies of the CA and the DNS agent’s user unit need no password. 0.8.9 and earlier asked twice — the system-store file came in a second dialog, and until it was answered curl and PHP still trusted the CA.

2. Remove the app:

   sudo apt remove rexenv

   — or delete the AppImage.

   If the one-command install (or you) added rexenv’s apt repository, the package’s removal leaves the source line and its key behind, and so does the in-app step — the app never wrote them. Nothing uses them once the package is gone; to remove them too:

   sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rexenv.list /etc/apt/keyrings/rexenv.gpg

3. Optionally, remove your data:

   rm -rf ~/.local/share/rexenv

   and, separately, your sites in ~/rexenv/Sites.

Check both folders before deleting them

~/rexenv/Sites holds your site files unless you moved the Sites folder. ~/.local/share/rexenv holds your databases and every downloaded component. Look inside each before you remove it.

Linked sites are the exception in your favour: rexenv serves those folders in place and never copies or deletes them, so a linked project is untouched by any of this.

Keeping the data, removing the app

Doing the first two steps but not the third is a supported state on every platform. Reinstalling rexenv later picks the same directory back up with your sites and databases intact.