deinstall (Was: Re: [Distutils] setup.py clean questions )

[Thomas Heller]

Rene Liebscher wrote:
> Own classes for install are not a problem, if they are build correct.
> For example bdist_rpm uses get_outputs() and if one has build its own
> subclasses so bdist_rpm still works, then you can also get the complete
> list of files from get_outputs().
> 
> For PyOpenGL I use a really complex install_data replacement and it
> would be
> easier to use it as it is than to extend it and later to explain the
> people
> which uses a later version of distutils (with install_data.uninstall())
> why 
> they see a traceback when they try to uninstall an older version of
> PyOpenGL.
> (BTW, not only PyOpenGL uses this install_data replacement, you can find
> it 
> also in pyxml.) 
> 
> If you really want to extend install_* then you could use this at least
> as
> a kind of fallback if you try to uninstall an older package.
> 
OK, sounds reasonable.
So we would run install_data (or even install) in dry_run mode
(or maybe even in not dry_run mode), and the use get_outputs()
to find the files to delete.

Why is install_data special:
Because it does not copy the files into the build-directory
first. Is this is design flaw?

Thomas