uninstall a file .tar.gz

[James Wilkinson]

Liloulinx wrote:
> How to uninstall a package installed with namefile.tar.gz?

With difficulty.

Hopefully there'll be a README in the archive that tells you how to
uninstall.

If the archive contained source (and you had to do a ./configure; make;
make install or similar: you'd know if you had), then a

make uninstall

might work.

Otherwise, if you still have namefile.tar.gz, then

tar tf namefile.tar.gz

will list all the files in the archive, and you could feed that to an
appropriate script.

If you're lucky, it will just have put all its files under a common
directory (e.g. /opt/namefile), and you can just delete /opt/namefile
(making sure there's nothing under there that you want to keep).

If you're unlucky, it will have spewed files all over the filesystem,
and you'll have to either delete them one-by-one or script their
removal.

WARNING! If you're *really* unlucky, some moron will have put
directories like /usr/bin in the archive. Don't delete that!

But that's why I'm not putting a sample script in this e-mail.

In any case, the program inside the archive may have put configuration
files under /etc or in your home directory, and it will be your
responsibility to clear those up. It may also have put links into your
browser's filetree (for example).

Hope this helps,

James.

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