How to reverse a manual instalation?

English Applications
1

i I was just trying to see how Nagios works in OpenSuse 12.1. I tried to install it from Yast but I was not able to run it.
Then I found a document on the web(Install Nagios in Opensuse 12.1 from source | Unixmen) which describes a manual installation method. The document does not specify under which user the instalation must be done so I tried under I think the incorrect user. How can i uninstall it? so i place the files under the right user and try again?
How these commands can be reversed? is there a way?
sudo ./configure
** sudo make all**
** sudo make install
Thank you

**

2

Do not compile the application as root. You only need root permissions to do the actual installation.

./configure
make
sudo make install

If you read the INSTALL file in the source tarball, there may be instructions on removing the application. Usually,

sudo make uninstall

will do this.

3

I was ready to reply with a famous saying from Homer " DOH!" and then to get a Duff, but there is no uninstall options for this app in the source so i will have to check their site on how to remove it. Thanks for reply.

4

When you realy did all the commands as root, it is not very important what user did the sudo commands. You will have polluted root’s environment regardless of what user you were first.

And one should of course first find out how to deinstall something before one installs.
And I would never trust a product where the documentation says that I should do the configure and *make all *as root.

5

I was curious to see if it’s working because as I said what was installed with Yast didn’t work. Well I will have to live with a polluted environment for now or try to reinstall the OS.
As the changes were not performed on my home I think that it should give me a clean system and just add the changes that I had to make under root.
This is still just a personal computer and the impact is not that critical. Thank you for your advice Hank and I will try to stick to it. This was the first time that I tried to perform something manually(DOH) and I guess I blew it. Well I will have to have few Duffs take some backups and reinstall the clean environment.

6

On 2012-03-30 11:06, hcvv wrote:
>
> When you realy did all the commands as -root-, it is not very important
> what user did the -sudo- commands. You will have polluted -roo-t’s
> environment regardless of what user you were first.

Well, in this case, he did the “make install”, and that can only be done as
root; it is irrelevant how he did run the previous phases.

> And one should of course first find out how to deinstall something
> before one installs.

Unfortunately, most Linux build instructions miss this phase. At least it
was so some years ago when I looked.

> And I would never trust a product where the documentation says that I
> should do the -configure- and -make all -as -root.-

They usually don’t say anything about that. But if they were bad guys, they
would delay any bad action till the make install phase, that has to be run
as root in any case. Install as plain user is normally not even contemplated.

I would run “sudo make uninstall” in any case, even if not documented. Many
programs have it.

A trick to uninstall a program is to create an rpm, using checkinstall. The
sequence is this:


make install
checkinstall
rpm --install whatever
rpm --erase whatever

The first install phase is needed to force creation of directories that
checkinstall fails to create, but needs. It is a reported bug and
corresponding hack.

It is possible that the checkinstall phase fails, something about wrong
spec syntax re requires. The hack is to configure change “REVIEW_SPEC=1” in
/etc/checkinstallrc

Another course of action is to look in /usr/local directory, because most
manuals installs go there. If the OP hasn’t done more installs, it is easy
to find the files. Then, the checkinstall phase above creates a listing of
all files installed.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)