[Distutils] Uninstall command, the return

[zooko]

On Jan 29, 2009, at 17:49 PM, Tarek Ziadé wrote:

> Many people are asking for an uninstall command.

This is true.

Many other people, however, are unwilling to let the Python packaging  
tool nor the packages that it is installing write into their system  
directories.  For these people, the system directories are never  
allowed to be written into by any tool other than their operating  
system packaging tool e.g. apt.  For these people, offering a new  
feature so that, in addition to the Python packaging tool scribbling  
into their system directory at install time, it will *also* later  
scribble into it again attempting to undo the changes that it earlier  
did is only compounding the problem.  :-)

For those people, there are several potential solutions.  One is the  
path from Python package through Python packaging tool (e.g. stdeb)  
to operating system package (e.g. .deb) to operating system tool  
(e.g. apt) to system directories.  Another is GNU stow.

For me, and for some hackers that I've talked to, making setuptools  
compatible with GNU stow would satisfy their need to have a way to  
cleanly uninstall.

So, please consider this a reminder in the distutils development  
process that you are undergoing that GNU stow compatibility has many  
benefits.

Regards,

Zooko
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