Re: [Distutils] [Python-Dev] How we can get rid of eggs for 2.6 and beyond

skip@pobox.com writes:

Joachim> I think, the uninstall should _not_ 'rm -rf' but only 'rm' the Joachim> files (and 'rmdir' directories, but not recursively) that it Joachim> created, and that have not been modified in the meantime (after Joachim> the installation).

That's not sufficient. Suppose file C (e.g. /usr/local/etc/mime.types) is in both packages A and B.

Install A - this will create C Install B - this might overwrite C, saving a copy, or it might retain A's copy. Uninstall B - this has to know that C is used by A and not touch it

MacPorts has an expensive but interesting approach. When it finds a file used by another package, it backs it up to sth like $file.`date`.