Re: Quick Annoyance

Today, Paul Weinstein <[email protected]> wrote:
> But if you want to remove software it becomes a pain. Not all
> Makefiles have an option for removing software. If they do you have to
> guess at what its called. Is it uninstall, deinstall, remove, delete,
> erase?

I wouldn't recommend the use of makefile-provided deinstall (or
sometimes even install) tactics. They can (and sometimes do) remove
parts that the author didn't intend or even know about. Think of gettext
translations getting removed, etc. Some gnome software did that once, if
you bulit it from source. Can't remember details, though (-:

If you want to escape that trap, use stow. It allows you to install
every source package into its own directory (I use
/usr/local/stow/<packagename>), and makes symlinks from there to
/usr/local/. It warns you when there are name clashes or anything, and
uninstalling means just wiping the symlinks and removing
/usr/local/stow/<packagename>. No brittle makefile deinstall scripts or
anything.

Of course, name clashes can be a pain to work around, but it's still
better than having random other software break. (-:

HTH,
-- 
Andreas Fuchs, <[email protected]>, [email protected], antifuchs