Idea
#5199: On package removal _optionally_ remove config files in home directories
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223
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Written by gedeon the 20 Mar 08 at 12:22.
Category: System.
Related to:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
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Description
When removing a package, it would be nice to have an option to remove all config/hiscore/... files (including those in the home directories) and not only the system wide ones.
I'm not sure whether this should be the default or not (probably not), but it would nice to have at least the option.
I like to try lots of programs to see if anything exist that is better than what I currently use. In most cases, I remove them right after I tried them. Even with a purge, they still leave their "user" configuration files in my home directory, and it's kinda hard to know which file comes from what package, so over time my home directory gets cluttered with many of those config files (and this awfully reminds me of the Windows registry clutter) and I have to guess which one are still useful or not to clean it up a bit.
Ok, now I guess this wouldn't be an easy task since I don't think packages include any information about the files created in the home directories. It might be a good idea to push for such an idea though.
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Comments
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wolfwitch wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 13:20
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Synaptic already has this option. Add/Remove Programs doesn't though.
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gedeon wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 13:55
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No. The option in synaptic (and underlying tools) remove the system-wide config files (mostly in /etc), not the ones written in the user home directories.
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sebsauvage wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 13:57
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Great idea !
I'm sick of manually cleaning my home directory of those files.
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endeavor wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 13:59
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I agree. I love trying out the various software available in the repositories, but I hate trying to figure out what files it created in my home directory so I can remove them if I don't like the app.
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piotrekp wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 14:37
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You've got 1 from me.
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andrew wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 15:20
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This would be good, even if it didn't have the package removal as a requirement. If a program does something in the user's config that causes it to not run, it would be good to have a non-techie way to 'start over'.
Also, along with the actual idea, it would be good if someone had installed a program just to test it/see what it does.
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droetker wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 19:55
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Thik it's good idea.
The problem is just: on package removal, from which user should the configs be removed? From all users? or just "me"? (the sudoer?).
On Single-user-systems no problem, but think of just the case of the computer with mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, and the 2 children as users ;-)
mum wants to keep the firefox settings and plugins for eventual next install - uh-uh - you thought right - dad doesn't want to keep it, just clean the system...
Maybe it should be a per-user-permit? if e.g. in the home-dir is a .delete-all-config-files-which-are-not-used-any-more-without-asking-me - file (or something similar ;-) ) then the cleaner deletes it from that $HOME...
But in general a VERY good idea to keep a system clean.
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deejross wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:04
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You got my vote too. Purge is supposed to remove ALL configuration files, which leads me to believe that it deletes the ones in your home directory too, but it doesn't. Cluttering my home directory with stuff that can only be removed manually makes it harder to find what you're looking for when you need to configure an application that is actually installed.
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ben.wade wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:19
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Maybe three options:
Purge > System
Purge > Home
Purge > All
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sirkubador wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 20:45
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Yes, these three options would be optimal.
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deadowl wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 21:16
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This would be good, but there can be many users on a single computer that use the program that don't want their config files to disappear.
This would have to be a per-user feature. However, if there was an option in synaptic that let someone remove their config files at the user level, that would probably be a good thing. Also, other users would have to be notified of the package's removal from the computer when they login, and then prompt whether they want to remove the config files or not. After all, if we also want to be able to synchronize our home directories onto a flash drive, being able to bring the config files to another computer that -does- have the application, you'd then be able to use it.
Could have something like a "config files that do not correspond to packages this computer has installed" dialog, particularly for other Ubuntu-based machines.
Otherwise, a good system administrator would actually know to delete them the other ways.
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Treviño wrote on the 20 Mar 08 at 23:37
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The problem is that the configuration location isn't standardized.
Imho, first of all, the config files should be put all into ~/.config/ (my home isn't usable! And I never use it for my data!), then the packages should mention informations about userspace configuration files.
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ben.wade wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 00:15
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@ Trevino: agreed, I would love it if there was a .config directory.
@ deadbowl: I think your point is moot because most users can't use synaptic anyway... So if you're not an admin then you'll need to manually remove your config files either way.
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Roanoke wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 02:57
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Yeah, one vote from me, and users should have some kind of config file in their home dir in which it has an option whether to delete the files or not.
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asashnov wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 06:39
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Generally it can be "Home directory cleaner" which may detect (by some database) .dot files and folders from currently not installed software.
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Starbetrayer wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 07:06
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be careful
could be deadly for thunderbird, you could lose your mail
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aantn wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 08:38
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I don't know how Thunderbird works, but imho ~/.config shouldn't be used for storing important data or files that are necessary for the application to run.
(In my opinion) the ~/.config directory should only be used for storing nonessential preferences. (e.g. color and style settings and maybe even cookies.) Applications should be able to function even if their ~/config directory was deleted.
There should be another place to store all other necessary data.
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_alex_ wrote on the 26 Apr 08 at 18:58
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I can see where aantn is coming from, however I'd prefer if all application data was kept in one place rather than crapping all over the hard drive like some other OS's ;)
Perhaps something like this will be the best of both worlds:
~/.appdata/myapp/preferences
~/.appdata/myapp/data
Perhaps in future this would also allow the data to be imported when upgrading the app, while cleaning all preferences (currently I just do a clean install to avoid conflicts with old configs).
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