From: "John M. Gabriele" <john_sips_tea@...>
Date: 2006-04-18T14:07:35+09:00
Subject: feature request: "make uninstall"

Hi,

I think it would be occasionally very useful if Ruby's
makefile had a make uninstall target. From what little I
know of the automake/autoconf tools, this make not be a
very difficult target to add.

I realize that there are alternatives like GNU stow,
but have never used them, since most software I install
in /usr/local usually has an uninstall target.

I also see that it's probably not too terribly difficult
to sift through those /usr/local directories manually
uninstalling an older, un-needed (or possibly botched up)
Ruby installation. But, why not make that into a simple
"make uninstall" instead?

A "make uninstall" also can save you if you mis-
configure and then install, and then want to back out
cleanly.

As an aside: In general, I think that one measure of
how folks gauge a piece of software is how easy it is
to uninstall. IMO, making it easy for your users to
remove your software from their system shows that
you're confident they will generally tend not to use
such functionality. :)

Thanks,
---John


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