how to uninstall non-packaged software

kosmognov · 05-13-2006, 09:13 AM

Hi again,

this thread is a reformulation of my last post (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=444094)

To make this question simple:

- How do I uninstall non-packaged software?

after:
- make; make install

make clean should work. But where did it install it to? what to do when the software did not provide a make clean rule?

what does the installation process actually does? is this a simple copy to various folders? how can I completely remove something?

Thank you,
ricardo

raskin · 05-13-2006, 09:41 AM

1. make clean does not usually clean installed software
2. sometimes make uninstall or something does
3. installation process can include rather complicated things, for example renaming old files.

Try make_uninstall - program, monitoring file operations during make install and providing possibility to rollback.

kosmognov · 05-13-2006, 09:52 AM

so make install is basically irreversible unless the software provides a rule to uninstall? by monitoring the instalations do u mean write down every file and folder where the software copied stuff to? and then just deleting those files and folders?

mrcheeks · 05-13-2006, 10:10 AM

You should alwasy check if there is an uninstall target before installing from sources unless you are willing to delete the installed files by hand.

kosmognov · 05-13-2006, 10:40 AM

thanks for the tip.

Just another thing. How hard would it be to write a script that would keep a track off every file that gets written/replaced and use that to create a list of files to use for an uninstall? maybe extract the TO properties from the make install file?

I could possibly do it in java since this is the only language I know. As I am trying to learn C++ I recon I could start here if someone is willing to develop this with me. Thanks

Hangdog42 · 05-13-2006, 11:37 AM

Rather than writing your own, I would suggest considering checkinstall. This program replaces the make install step and can create Slackware .tgz, Red Hat .rpm and Debian .deb packages that you can then install and uninstall with the normal distro package management system.

kosmognov · 05-13-2006, 12:08 PM

thank you very much... ill give it a try.