|
INTRODUCTION:
Sometimes you want to install some program and you don't have *.rpm or
*.deb package of them - so you must use *.tar archive. But this alternative
has a big disadvantage - it is an uninstallation. This can be available through
'make uninstall' but very often you don't have this possibility. A very simple
and safe solution for this problem is to use uninst. Uninst makes
uninstallation 'bash' script so you can easily remove every file which belongs to the
installed application.
REQUIREMENTS:
- libc5 or glibc2
- libstdc++
- GNU 'ls' in /bin with -Q option support
All Linux distributions satisfy this requirements.
INSTALLATION:
In order to compile and install uninst on your system,
type the following in the base directory of the uninst distribution:
% ./configure
% make
change as `root` and type:
% make install
UNINSTALLATION:
Type the following in the base directory of the uninst distribution:
% make uninstall
USAGE:
- run in 'before' mode:
uninst b (-b,--before) [options] [path1...pathN] [@alias1...@aliasN]
[-o <outputScript>]
[option]
-nv (--no-verbose)
-v (--verbose) -display additional informations
-r (--remove)
-nr (--no-remove) -do not delete temporary files
-f (--force)
-nf (--no-force) -make uninstall script with 'rm -i' instead 'rm -f'
[path1...pathN] -complete paths which will be scanned
[@alias1...@aliasN] -aliases of paths which will be scanned
[-o <outputScript>] -name of automatically generated uninstall script
- run in 'after' mode:
uninst a (-a,--after)
- display help:
uninst h (-h,--help) -display this help screen
|
Uninst help screen
Program creates configuration file in ~/.uninstrc.
You can define following variables in it:
FLAGS= - add here often used flags (for example: FLAGS= --verbose)
TEMP= - set temp directory (default= /tmp)
UNINSTAL= - set directory where uninstall scripts will be stored (default= ./)
Also there you can define aliases of paths like:
@all=/opt/kde:/usr;/bin:/sbin:/etc:/var
EXAMPLE:
(assume that we are going to compile and install an application named kpackage)
$ make
$ uninst b /usr /opt/kde -o kpackage
$ make install
$ uninst a
or
$ make
$ uninst b @kde -o kpackage
$ make install
$ uninst a
Uninstall script named 'kpackage' will be created. ( alias @kde must be properly defined in ~/.uninstrc )
BUGS AND DISADVANTAGES:
- uninst does not scan directories which are linked to the scanned
path with a symbolic link. ( it can be a disadvantage and advantage also)
- sometimes extraneous files can be added to the uninstall script which don't belong
to the installed application such as system logs and other files created during installation
(to minimize this danger run 'make install' immediately after 'uninst b' and then
directly 'uninst a') It seems to be always a good idea to look at automatically
created uninstall script and check it. - uninst does not look for changed sizes of files, so if installed
software needs to change some configuration files - these changes are not
included in uninstall script
- scanning of a hard disk takes a long time
EPILOGUE:
It is still unfinished, but I need some feedback, so, please,
send any hints, bug reports or ideas to <jozef.kosoru@pobox.sk>.
|