I installed apache 2.0 via a tarball (*.tar.gz). The installation was successful. However, I would like to uninstall it now. I tried a "make uninstall" and I get a "No rule to make target 'uninstall' message. I saw other forum messages that state that some programs don't use "make uninstall". Is this the case with apache?

I also read on this forum about using checkinstall, however, since I did not use "checkinstall" to perform the installation, I am assuming that I cannot use checkinstall to uninstall. Is that a correct assumption?

I checked the makefile and I couldn't find anything about uninstalling.

How do I uninstall apache? Is it as simple as deleting the directory where it is installed (/usr/local/apache2) or will it be more complicated?

I don't know what distribution you're using ?
But I assume that if you have download the .tar.gz file. it must be build from source ....right?

Actually there's not a clean un-install for source tarballs. In the dir where you have extracted the tar ball, the binary's are builded which is done by make. After all finally make install will copy all file to the correct path on your linux distro.

I've done this in the past:
Delete the dir with the source, search all binarys and configs in /etc/ and delete them manually. Distro's like RedHat, Slackware, Gentoo all have some kind of package manager. In this cause, if you would like to build something allways from scratch (code) then RedHat and Gentoo are the most organized. Of cource there'r more distro's which I didn't mention, but do have also a good package management.

CheckInstall:
As far as I know It's just before the install actually is done, this will check some things like path, files, etc. Not used for uninstall.

Hope this helps

Thanks,

I am using RedHat 9. Looks like the uninstall process will be sort of difficult considering I did not use an rpm.

I will do as you suggested an look for all the binaries and config and remove them.

I think using checkinstall during installation is a wiser choice.

One thing to consider for future tarball installs is using checkinstall. After you install this, you can now make binary packages for your distro (.rpm, .deb, .tgz) that you can uninstall easily. It also saves the binary package so you can install it an another system without having to compile the source again. Good luck.

To uninstall a compiled version, you remove the entire folder where apache binaries files reside (like httpd), www, or apache2 with the command "rm -rf " (carefully this command will remove all without warning).
Then clear the compiled files in the folder where you have the source files with the command "make clean" and you could make a new install.

./configure \
"--with-layout=Apache" \
"--enable-mods-shared=most" \
... (more options)

make

make install

sorry if this sounds dum but where would the -folder where apache binaries files reside - be by default for redhat 9 ?