Deleting app does not delete (user) data

General
#7

You’re correct, Apps need to manually define the files to remove when the package manage uninstalls, but not many devs know about that or know how to actually do it; I’m not even sure myself how to do it

#8

Yes, as I said above

This counts for any package mechanism afaik (maybe should have stated more explicit?).

apt’s purge will only delete known/specified conf files.

1 Like
#9

I must correct myself. Not only Unixoid systems have this problem :roll_eyes:

1 Like
#10

This is a good resource: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/ro/Fedora_Draft_Documentation/0.1/html/RPM_Guide/ch09s05s03.html

1 Like
#11

Maybe there should be and option whether you want to delete or keep the user data?

2 Likes
#12

Or simple information where these data are, so the user can delete them manually as devel-su if wanted.

1 Like
#13

RPM %preun or %postun scripts can (and IMO should) be used for that. Just don’t forget the if [ "$1" == 0 ] check ($1 is 1 on upgrade). That’s forbidden in Jolla Store though :confused:

3 Likes
#14

This is an important thing we devs have to start think about.

IMO a system package manager like rpm should not touch any data inside the user directory. This also became more difficult with multi user support.

I would prefer a “clear config” button inside the app itself, which also gives you feedback what is about to be deleted.

2 Likes
#15

It’s not RPM, it’s your script who does the cleaning. RPM itself doesn’t touch anything that’s not related to package management. With multiple users it’s pretty much the only place where it can be done, actually. Apps have no access to other user’s data, but scripts which are run by RPM with root privileges, do.

#16

But how can the user decide whether or not to delete data?

#17

Good point :confused: There’s no simple solution, it seems.

#18

Maybe this helps? :

Uninstall packages with configuration files

Debian : dpkg --purge PaketName
Debian : apt-get purge PaketName
Debian : aptitude purge PaketName
Red Hat/CentOS : yum remove
Gentoo : ?
Zypper : zypper remove [12)]

[12)]Complete cleaning of the configuration only manually:

for package in package1 package2 package3
do
  echo "removing config files for $package"
  for file in $(rpm -q --configfiles $package)
  do
    echo "  removing $file"
    rm -f $file
  done
  rpm -e $package
done

Edit: This is a generic suggestion.

1 Like
#19

You mean like?
https://together.jolla.com/question/229207/zypper-remove-packages-including-configs-apt-purge/

#20

Oh, surprise! Seems like an old problem.

#21

This does never delete any user data & configuration! I only deletes system configuration/data (See also my other post here Deleting app does not delete (user) data)

1 Like
#22

Sure you are right. There is only one safe way to let developers clear the configuration files. Otherwise you have to search in /etc, /home, /opt and elsewhere yourself.

The suggestion from the internet is unsuccessful. My uninstallation experiences with “synaptic” on a Debian system rarely work. It’s just theory. I gave up looking for a solution a long time ago.

#23

so we are talking a that this is a huge problem of Linux, where we cant delete the data so it can be track ?
why android can do it then when it is a linux kernel?

#24

Not the Linux Kernel is the problem, but the packaging of the Apps. While Sailfish uses RPM (but it would be the same with AUR, deb, etc), Android uses a completely different concept for apps.

1 Like
#25

ookay!! hope that that will change it is important that we like users have the control of what we need to delete and what we wanna keep, and it has to be in a easy way, where you dont need to be master IT class for doing it.

1 Like
#26

I don’t know of any operating system that fulfills this requirement. We can only remind the developers to delete all data when uninstalling.