Linux program installation
 

Hi there all,

I'm curious about sth that lets say you installed a program on any linux distribution via that program's own installer and after installation you re-run the installer again and it says you that you have already installed it and ask about options like repair or uninstall.I'm just curious that how can it understand that I have already installed it. I was just guessing that it can/may understand thanks to env. variables but when u list env variables you cannot see anything related to it. I hope I cud describe the thing I'm curious about. If anybody has any idea about it, I wud be happy to hear. Thanks...

Well it just sees that the files are already there typically, nothing that clever there is no central registry or anything like that.

BTW, is it really too hard to write proper words? "sth"? "wud"? "u"? This isn't a text message.

:)
I asked this question because I had installed a program with its installer and then accidentally deleted all the files including installation directory. I downloaded it and tried to reinstall it but it says I have already installed it and indicates the directory which I had deleted. Thats why I asked how it can understand or if there would be a way to find a file or variable that I can edit.

@OP: you installed a .deb file? what is the "program's own installer" that you refers to?

* please say what distribution you are using

Red Hat Enterprize Linux

Installer is a binary file which you execute and a gui comes up later on. Using the gui you specify the installation directory and other properties.

Erm, yes we know what an installer generically IS, what are YOU actually doing?

Hey acid_kewpie, what is YOUR problem? R u here to help people with their problems or what?

I'm going to venture a guess.. Is it possible that the package manager thinks the package is installed? Maybe using your package manager's "remove" or "uninstall" or "cleanup" function will clean up the situation, and then you could re-install the thing?

EDIT: And also, does this "installer" you used the first time, have an "uninstall" option? Maybe a command-line option or a command-line --help option? There must be documentation for it. Maybe if you run the installer with the --extract option (or a similar option, like with the nvidia driver for example) it will extract but not install, and you might find documentation in the extracted contents.

Sorry if this doesn't help, :)

Well, thanks for your help. I'm afraid it is not related to it. I had been downloading and installing Synopsys Tools to the computer of our research lab. As I'm new to Linux I was doing all installation tasks within Root account. Then I read it somewhere and also asked it to my friend that installing things using root account is not a good thing to do. So I deleted all the installation files. Created a new user and downloaded packages and started to reinstall them. Then when it was time to install one specific package it told me that I had already installed it. And it was showing the installation path to the directory I had deleted. So that was why I thought if I can understand how it still redirects the installation directory, then maybe I can do somethings to install it to the new directory.

Perhaps `ls -R /etc | grep -i synopsis` or `grep -iR /var/log/* /etc/*` or something like these, for signs of "synopsis" or similar entries in a configuration file, install logfile, lockfile, etc.? It's highly improbable that any variable is being used for this (if anything) -- more likely a file is being saved/read somewhere.

Good luck!

I tried uninstall and repair options but there was no help. I opened that binary file and tried to understand the code but after some point there are no more codes, just full of ASCII symbols. Maybe encrypted, I dont know. I sent an email about this problem to Synopsys but not sure If they will write back. Thanks for your suggestions.

EDIT: I will try the things you said above. I hope it will help us.

Your friend is misinformed as installing software IS
normally done by the root user. This is for security so casual users cannot cause mischief by deleting key programs or installing unwanted programs. The package manager needs to be run as root. What should be avoided if possible, is a binary installer/script. If something goes wrong it can be hard to fix. If possible you should use packages from your distribution repository.

Searching for Synopsys, it appears this is a very complicated and expensive program, and is not free. It is hard to believe that you 'downloaded' it. If you have a valid copy of this program then you have probably destroyed your license key when you deleted stuff. If you did pay for this software, you should contact the vendor for support for this program as no one on this forum will be able to help you.