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

[Joachim König]

Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> Second, there were no uninstall tools for it, so I'd have had to 
> write one myself.  (Zed's "easy_f'ing_uninstall" to the contrary, it 
> ain't easy, and I have an aversion to deleting stuff on people's 
> systems without knowing what will break.  There's a big difference 
> between them typing 'rm -rf' themselves, and me doing it.)
>   
I think, the uninstall should _not_ 'rm -rf' but only 'rm' the files 
(and 'rmdir' directories, but not
recursively) that it created, and that have not been modified in the 
meantime (after
the installation). This can be easily achieved by recording a checksum 
(eg. md5 or sha)
upon installation and only deleting a file if the checksum is correct 
and only deleting directories when they
are empty (after the installed files in them have been deleted). 
Otherwise, the uninstall should
complain and leave the modified files installed.

Joachim