I have managed to install a few applications by compiling them, now how do I delete them? Do I just have to delete their folder and shortcuts and that’s it? Doesn’t the application leave files in other system folders?
On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:06:02 +0000, robertot5 wrote:
> I have managed to install a few applications by compiling them, now how
> do I delete them? Do I just have to delete their folder and shortcuts
> and that’s it? Doesn’t the application leave files in other system
> folders?
Depends on the application - the README file will usually give uninstall
instructions.
Often times:
make uninstall
Will remove it.
Jim
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
Linux apps don’t have a contained folder, as in Windows. Executables, shared libs, config files all are distributed to different directories shared with other applications. For example, a program executable will typically be in /usr/bin, while a library will be in /usr/lib or /usr/lib64. Manually deleting an application would be more problematic than on Windows. Not really a good way to go anyway, as it can break dependencies.
As suggested, make uninstall might do the trick. Sometimes though there is no uninstall target.
Another method is to make packages when you compile applications, then install the package. You may then remove it as you would any other package, or run rpm -ql yourpackage to see the files and locations, etc.
Two tools for this are checkinstall and fpm. Simply run checkinstall in the source directory and it will attempt to create and rpm. Hint: sometimes this fails. If so try running make install, and then checkinstall. Yes, this seems counter intuitive: you are installing a package over what you just installed, however you can then cleanly remove the package. (Sometime checkinstall chokes on missing directories, etc. which are created when you run make install. And it’s just a bit finicky.)
The other tool, fpm, is a bit more complicated to work with, but is worth checking out: https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm/wiki
It might depend on how much you want to learn. Personally I think learning how to make an rpm package correctly is easier than stressing over checkinstall. 
And as an afterthought. Going for compiling a product yourself instead of using one from an “official” openSUSE repo already puts a burden onto you of checking and rechecking how save a product is. If it does in stall in proper places (some programmers have wild ideas about this) and if a proper deinstall is documentedand provided.
Many product providers think that when it “works”, that is all the matters. They forget documentation, correct (de)installation procedures, etc. It is you, the system manager, that stays responsible for what happens on the system.