Re: FW: shall `make uninstall' remove directories?

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello, David!

> Therefore, I think I'd suggest, as "make install" has a call to
> "mkinstalldirs" before the loop to install files, perhaps "make uninstall"
> should have a call to "mkuninstalldirs" after the loop to remove files.  The
> "mkuninstalldirs" script can handle the cleanup of supposedly dead
> directories (including having environment variables and/or options that
> would allow sysadmins/packagers to decide how much they want to clean up).
> As "mkinsalldirs" is packaged with automake, so could "mkuninstalldirs".

Even empty directories do contain information. They have permissions and
ownership. Who is to blame if mkuninstalldirs removes /usr/local/share
"for you" and then somebody recreates this directory without giving you
write access?

While setting default permissions on the newly created directories seems
reasonable (you can adjust them later) this may not apply to deleting
directories.

Regards,
Pavel Roskin