[odb-users] Issue with uninstall

[Boris Kolpackov]

Alex B <intord at gmail.com> writes:

> Another part of problem is uninstall doesn't work as it should. I tried to
> explain the steps above. It's not clear from documentation the exact steps
> of removing everything if needed as a whole process. So once I tried to run
> the steps from within odb directories, others written for the build2
> failed. As for me, that was never tested properly. I mean removing packages
> processing with the package manager in the Linux system should produce the
> same result as it was before the install but not in half state. This will
> potentially put the system in the bad state regardless of Linux
> distribution. Again I am not sure will you be interested in working on
> this, but just letting you know.

There is nothing to fix and I take personal offense at your suggestion
that build2 is just another half-baked build system that cannot even
uninstall cleanly. We took great care in making sure uninstall works
correctly and reliably and it has been (and is continuously being)
"tested properly".

Your description of what happened is neither detailed nor precise
enough for me to figure out the cause. But if you install/uninstall
custom-built software to the same place as the system package manager,
sooner or later (and most likely sooner) you will end up with a broken
system where nothing makes sense anymore.

This is the reason why on most Linux distributions the system package
manager installs to /usr/{bin/,lib/,...} while custom-built software
goes to /usr/local/{bin/,lib/,...}. Gentoo does it differently, you
choose to use it, and it's your responsibility to know to adjust the
default installation location, which customarily /usr/local/.