hello,

I recently started a programming project and wanted to make use of this library OIS (an input engine for3d applications).

I downloaded the source and compiled it with the standrd ./configure / make business. Then I installed it with make install.

After fiddling with it for a couple days trying to get it working properly I have discovered that there may be some version mismatch issues between the header files and the library object files.

So i would just like to wipe the library clean off my hard drive and start from scratch. do the auto tools provide for anything like make uninstall or similar? if not what is the best way to uninstall files created with a make install command?

Well... You can try issuing the
make uninstall
command in the same directory where you used make install to install the package. Some developers provide the opportunity to uninstall their software this way. Some don't.
Also, you might want to read README or INSTALL files provided with the software to see if there is another way to uninstall the library. But there's no guarantee.
Finally, you can read the Makefile itself and see where it installs files. Then just go over these directories and remove everything it installed.

The proper way of installing new software to a distribution that uses packaging system is to either find a ready to use package and install it or, if you compile from source, make a package yourself. And then install it. Otherwise, after some time your system becomes a total mess...