Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 08:59:16 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: "Alaric B. Williams" <alaric AT abwillms DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Uninstalling components
In-Reply-To: <848427673.27631.0@abwillms.demon.co.uk>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.961120085250.20041J-100000@is>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


On Tue, 19 Nov 1996, Alaric B. Williams wrote:

> >	rm -rvf @manifest/fil313b.mft
> 
> >This will delete all the files which come with fil313b.zip.  Neat, eh?
> 
> Beware! libhw, for example, overwrites djgpp.lnk / djgpp.djl - so if
> you do this, you lose that file and have to reinstall it from the
> original distribution!

How else will you suggest to uninstall a package which overwrites DJGPP 
files?  Won't you delete those files and reinstall them from the original 
distribution?  I think that deleting them will alert people that they 
need to reinstall the missing file, which is much better than leaving the 
altered files lurking and waiting to bite you later.

Anyway, the *really* dangerous part in what I wrote is the -r switch.  If
a manifest file includes a directory name (like e.g. gnu/ or even, God
forbid, bin/), it will zap that entire directory without asking!  So make
that command say this instead: 

     rm -vf @manifest/fil313b.mft

(I hope nobody has yet tried to apply my advice verbatim...)