I disagree. I think there should be "symmetry" -- it makes the process
clearer. If an installation results in some directories getting created,
then an uninstallation should take some responsibility for seeing that they
get uncreated. However, I think its acceptable for the uninstall to simply
list what directories it would like to remove (as in "the following
directories in the target area are now empty") so that the administrator has
a clue of what to clean up.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lars Hecking [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 3:03 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: shall `make uninstall' remove directories?
> Pavel> I still insist that no directories should be removed by "make
> Pavel> uninstall" unless they defininely belong to the package being
> Pavel> uninstalled.
>
> I doubt there is any way to determine this.
>
> Pavel> I don't want to figure out why /usr/local/man/man8 is not
> Pavel> writeable by my group whereas /usr/local/man/man7 is.
>
> Maybe we can work to solve this somehow. This area is really
> contentious, though. Problems here come up periodically. One idea
> would be to have a version of "install" that can be easily hacked to
> understand local system preferences. Then it is up to the sysadmins,
> and not us.
I am certainly not going to rely on "hacked" tools for system
administration.
They add additional maintenance work, and complications when eg. personnel
changes.
I'm fully with Pavel in this issue. Directories should be dealt with
by a packaging system, not automake.
