On Thu, 23 Oct 2003, Rob Wultsch wrote:

> Is there a simple way to do it other than just deleting files or is it a
> a different way for each program (in which case something needs to be done)?

Some software includes Makefiles that have an uninstall target. But
usually you have to clean up manually.

One idea for autoconf'd (../configure) software is to use a --prefix to
define it to install to its own directory like:
"--prefix=/usr/local/name-here". Then you can easily clean up.

Another idea is to make a file list of your filesystem before installation
and then after and then maybe the list of differences can be used to know
what to clean up. (Of course, remember that other files may be
created/modified by other tasks during that time so be sure to manually
review it.)

(You can also try using find with -newer or -mtime, but that may not work
in some cases, because some installs may copy or extract files while
preserving timestamps.)

Or you can combine those two ideas by using /usr/local prefix and building
file lists.

It gets easier just learning your favorite packaging systems build methods
and then create your own package. (I use pkgsrc.)

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://bsd.reedmedia.net/