* Suggestions to setup.exe @ 2011-04-02 16:44 Tony 2011-04-03 2:44 ` Larry Hall (Cygwin) 0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread From: Tony @ 2011-04-02 16:44 UTC (permalink / raw) To: cygwin Hi. I just installed this package here which brought with it a ton of dependancies. Why can't setup.exe, when I want to uninstall this package, also uninstall all the dependancies? Please make the next Cygwin release support "clean uninstalls". Many thanks! -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions to setup.exe 2011-04-02 16:44 Suggestions to setup.exe Tony @ 2011-04-03 2:44 ` Larry Hall (Cygwin) 2011-04-04 4:03 ` Andy Koppe 0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread From: Larry Hall (Cygwin) @ 2011-04-03 2:44 UTC (permalink / raw) To: cygwin On 4/2/2011 12:44 PM, Tony wrote: > Hi. I just installed this package here which brought with it a ton of > dependancies. Why can't setup.exe, when I want to uninstall this > package, also uninstall all the dependancies? Please make the next > Cygwin release support "clean uninstalls". That's not as easy as it might initially sound. Uninstalling all dependencies might result in other utilities not working, since these dependencies could be shared. Determining the dependencies to install is easier than determining those that are safe to uninstall. So that's by way of explanation for why you see the behavior you currently see from 'setup.exe' when uninstalling a package. That said, it is possible to figure out which dependencies could safely be uninstalled. That part of your request could be implemented in the future. -- Larry _____________________________________________________________________ A: Yes. > Q: Are you sure? >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. >>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email? -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions to setup.exe 2011-04-03 2:44 ` Larry Hall (Cygwin) @ 2011-04-04 4:03 ` Andy Koppe 0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread From: Andy Koppe @ 2011-04-04 4:03 UTC (permalink / raw) To: cygwin On 3 April 2011 03:44, Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote: > On 4/2/2011 12:44 PM, Tony wrote: >> >> Hi. I just installed this package here which brought with it a ton of >> dependancies. Why can't setup.exe, when I want to uninstall this >> package, also uninstall all the dependancies? Please make the next >> Cygwin release support "clean uninstalls". > > That's not as easy as it might initially sound. Uninstalling all > dependencies > might result in other utilities not working, since these dependencies could > be > shared. Determining the dependencies to install is easier than determining > those that are safe to uninstall. So that's by way of explanation for why > you > see the behavior you currently see from 'setup.exe' when uninstalling a > package. That said, it is possible to figure out which dependencies could > safely be uninstalled. It depends. ;) When uninstalling a package, it sure makes sense to uninstall all the packages that depend on it, since they would stop working anyway. So for example, removing the libX11 runtime would be a quick way to remove all X11 programs. However, removing a package because an uninstalled package depends on is not generally a good idea, even if no other package depends on it. That's because the user might still require it, either directly or perhaps through a program they've built from source. For example, mintty depends on cygutils (for its postinstall script), but removing mintty doesn't mean that the user no longer wants to run cygstart&Co. Other package managers address this by keeping a record of which packages were requested explicitly by the user and which were installed implicitly as dependencies of other packages. Even then, the user might come to depend on packages that were only installed implicitly, so there's still scope for uninstalling packages accidentally, but at least there's a simple remedy: explicitly request such packages and it won't happen again. In any case, improving support for uninstalling stuff isn't exactly a new suggestion, and as usual, the real problem is: http://www.cygwin.com/acronyms/#SHTDI Andy -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2011-04-03 7:53 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 3+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2011-04-02 16:44 Suggestions to setup.exe Tony 2011-04-03 2:44 ` Larry Hall (Cygwin) 2011-04-04 4:03 ` Andy Koppe
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