myDSL Extensions (deprecated) :: removing an extension
Hi!
I have installed the XFree86.dsl extension and now I would like to remove it again. Is there a simple way to determine which files were added by the package?
Thanks, Christoph'Uninstalling' an extension depends on what kind of install you have done. If you have a frugal install, you can simply delete the extension and reboot. If you have done a hd installation, I dont know of any way to uninstall it except to find out all the files changed and unchange/delete them. I believe there has been some talk of a script to uninstall, but I dont believe anything is finished.*dont try this at home - not quite as easy as i thought. see next posting*
i started digging around and the basics of it don't look very hard. If somebody wants to knock out a little bash script for this, i think we could finally say we have an uninstaller!
removing _all_ files installed by either a .dsl or a tar.gz is as easy as being root, cding to / and running:
Code Sample
tar tzf /archive/location/blah.dsl | xargs rm
better yet, you could do this:
Code Sample
tar tzf /archive/blah.dsl > blah.dsl-remove.list
and then get rid of the .dsl and simply do a
Code Sample
cat blah.dsl-remove.list | xargs rm
to uninstall.
xargs does everything. you can cat the remove.list and then pipe that to an 'xargs find' and also determine which files already exist and ask the user if they want to back them up for a rollback later...although i didn't find any instances of this with the packages i tried...
It could go something like: cat package contents > remove.list cat remove.list | xargs find > $files prompt user: 'make a backup of $files?' if yes, cp $files > /home/dsl/rollback/ mydsl-load package fi! (did this all on a frugal 1.5 install)ive jumped to a few conclusions here... the tar txf listing includes dirs , and erasing /usr/bin isnt doing anyone any good. might want to _not_ try this on a hdd install until that is figured out.Ok, Say you install something like gnu-utils.dsl, which REPLACES all the symlinks to busybox with a true executable.
Then you remove all the executables with your uninstaller.
What now? Where are all my old symlinks?
Same with nvidia.dsl , or xfree86.dsl, which replaces key files for X . What do you do when you uninstall them, and find you have no X anymore?
Now, for a simple .tar.gz, which ONLY installs to /tmp, /home/dsl, and /opt this might work in some instances.. This is the basis for the .uci files working so well at uninstalling.
Some programs even make additional files into the filesystem at execution time. This is an issue even with .uci files, which may make new files in /home/dsl . ( like /home/dsl/.gqview , or /home/dsl/.wesnoth , as examples )
Now I don't experience ANY of these issues My gnu-utils.dsl, XFree86.dsl, and nvidia.dsl are EASILY uninstallable.. I run frugal !!!
Team DSL is working on solutions for these items.. stay tuned. Do take note that DSL strives to be the best LIVE CD, as it's number one mission and goal ..
