bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[Shalok Shalom via Bug reports for GNU Guix]

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I have installed Guix with the script, and now cannot find the part of the documentation, that explains how to uninstall it.

Sicher versendet mit [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/).

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bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[Rostislav Svoboda]

Do you mean the guix-install.sh script? If so then what about the
https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/guix.html#index-uninstallation_002c-of-Guix
?

bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[bokr]

On +2024-04-11 02:08:35 +0200, Rostislav Svoboda wrote:
> Do you mean the guix-install.sh script? If so then what about the
> https://guix.gnu.org/manual/devel/en/guix.html#index-uninstallation_002c-of-Guix
> ?
> 
> 
> 
It says (a bit reformatted):
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Should you eventually want to uninstall Guix, run the same │
│ script with the --uninstall flag:                          │
│                                                            │
│ ./guix-install.sh --uninstall                              │
│                                                            │
│ With --uninstall, the script irreversibly deletes all the  │
│ Guix files, configuration, and services.                   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

My 2 cents' worth:

That sounds dangerous -- what about putting all the deletions
in a TAR_DICT/TAR_FILE_NAME.tgz as a default, with suitable
default alternative commands for various capitalized names
in a (bash) select menu -- which could also include
    "Just do it, I know what --uninstall does")

--
Regards,
Bengt Richter

bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[Rostislav Svoboda]

> ./guix-install.sh --uninstall
> [...]
> That sounds dangerous

Yeah a bit.

> -- what about putting all the deletions
> in a TAR_DICT/TAR_FILE_NAME.tgz as a default, with suitable
> default alternative commands for various capitalized names
> in a (bash) select menu -- which could also include
>     "Just do it, I know what --uninstall does")

Eeeh? I don't understand what you mean.

Nevertheless, `./guix-install.sh --dry-run --uninstall` would be nice.
However the script is over 800 lines long. In bash! :-(
IMO before increasing script complexity with a new feature, we should
rewrite it to some reasonable language, preferably Guile Scheme. Or at
least Python.

Cheers Bost

bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[Bengt Richter]

On +2024-04-11 15:10:56 +0200, Rostislav Svoboda wrote:
> > ./guix-install.sh --uninstall
> > [...]
> > That sounds dangerous
> 
> Yeah a bit.
> 
> > -- what about putting all the deletions
> > in a TAR_DICT/TAR_FILE_NAME.tgz as a default, with suitable
> > default alternative commands for various capitalized names
> > in a (bash) select menu -- which could also include
> >     "Just do it, I know what --uninstall does")
> 
> Eeeh? I don't understand what you mean.
>

Sorry, I should have explained.

I just wanted a simple way to save /exactly/ what uninstall would delete.
so it wouldn't be "irrevocable," in case the uninstall is too eager about its job ;)

A dry run of that size would be a scrolling blur, I think, and not much use unless
captured, and then it would take a lot of boring unreliable reading before you could
decide for sure that  it was ok to do the uninstall.

Maybe guix pack could make a tarball of exactly what uninstall would delete, e.g.,
	guix pack --uninstall-victim-files

with options of where to write it.
 
> Nevertheless, `./guix-install.sh --dry-run --uninstall` would be nice.
> However the script is over 800 lines long. In bash! :-(
> IMO before increasing script complexity with a new feature, we should
> rewrite it to some reasonable language, preferably Guile Scheme. Or at
> least Python.
> 

Well, guix pack is already scheme, right? Why couldn't it invoke uninstall after
safely having completed packing the uninstall-victim-files ?

WDYT? Simon? Ludo? Anyone? :)

> Cheers Bost

--
Regards,
Bengt Richter

bug#70215: Documentation about uninstalling

[Simon Tournier]

Hi,

I mark this bug as done since the documentation already contains how to
uninstall.

On sam., 13 avril 2024 at 08:25, Bengt Richter <bokr@bokr.com> wrote:

>> Nevertheless, `./guix-install.sh --dry-run --uninstall` would be nice.

Well, it would be easy to write a Bash function wrapping ’rm’ and
displaying the files instead of removing them.

Who wants to give a try? ;-)

>> However the script is over 800 lines long. In bash! :-(
>> IMO before increasing script complexity with a new feature, we should
>> rewrite it to some reasonable language, preferably Guile Scheme. Or at
>> least Python.

The maintenance burden Bash vs Python is an opinion. :-)

Well, a rewrite in Scheme/Guile would require to have Guile already
installed to run such script.  And that’s not an assumption I would
do. ;-)


> Well, guix pack is already scheme, right? Why couldn't it invoke uninstall after
> safely having completed packing the uninstall-victim-files ?

Well, it’s appears to me an heavy hammer.  The best seems to have an
option displaying the files that need to be removed for uninstalling.

Let’s discuss that on guix-devel.  Because it’s not related to a
bug. :-)


Cheers,
simon