Hi.
I would uninstall Thunderbird on my opensuse 12.3 64bit system
I encountered, that Yast didn’t totally removed all instances.
Or said in windows term, there’s leftovers.
Why is it so?, I had the idea, that it was only windows that have such issue ?.
/Erik
What is left over exactly?
On 05/01/2013 08:06 PM, erikja wrote:
> Why is it so?
probably because you didn’t tell YaST/zypper to remove all
dependencies…which did you use?
–
dd
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobile” of operating systems!
Oh sorry, I can’t remember it now.
I did right click in Yast, and choosed to delete
If you take off a program you may be left with a “leftover” in the /home directory. It will be hidden file (in your case probably .thunderbird with your data in it). This is not really an error. It happens that you have to take off and re-install a program that for example encountered a problem after a sever crash or disk-fault of a sector. Now if un-install would trigger the removal of private user data, this would be a problematic event. Sometimes there are also a few temporary files left over, however in the mean programs leave if every some directories that hold config data or mail etc.
BTW one of the idea of using Akonadi was that different programs would be able to use the very same database, reducing the need of extra directories for private data and avoid unwanted redundancy.
Now if you compare this to windows, what is NOT left over is a growing charge of garbage inside the registry that slows down the system and after a while can lead to problems. The system therefore is not ageing. So the install and take off process of programs in Linux is efficient, you have only the fact of few private data.
If dependencies are not direct and you install a specific plug-in or supplement to a program it may be that these are “left over” after un-install of the original program. This is often so if the supplemental program is able to work also with other software or as stand alone solution.
Typical example could be my-spell dictionaries or also if you try: install google earth. It will trigger the install of qt3 (by itself able to be standalone and words with other applications) and make (which is a tool for installing software (compliation). Now if you uninstall google-earth out of the 8 packages that are triggered by the install, 5 are “left overs” but they are still regularly installed. When you want to have a complete clean of everything (typically after “trial and error” of a programme you will know what day you performed the install. Yast offers a chronology allowing you to check which package were installed and if you wish to take them off.
All these facts are unlike windows not “clutter” but functional. It is like you would buy a pink barby horse, with a nice white plastic saddle and decide to buy also two pairs of roller-skates for the hoofs of the poor animal. Now if you decide to get rid of the horse, the saddle would be take away too as it depends on the horse but the skates may stay because you would be able to use them also without the horse. The system therefore does not know by itself that you wanted to get rid of them too. They are functional and do not slow down. You only decide if they are now unwanted. The system can not. 
P.S. if you like to see a nice example of interaction of programs try “amor” a little worm that runs long your screen. It offers to programmers to use it to publish their tool tips (for their programs). So imagine you use it and get rid of one of the programs that use it. Amor would be then in your definition a “left over” as it would stay, because it can be stand alone or work with other programs.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/B000ELIXAY-1-lg.jpg
Hi and thanks for this reply.
I wish, that I have saved what I found after the total removal I did.
But I can do it again the uninstall, and then show what I mean.
For instance, after I uninstalled Thunderbird with Yast, and reinstalled it, all my account details was left, and
active again after the removal.
So it was not a total removal!.
After I searched/removed leftovers, I could again install Thunderbird, and now I should set up my account again.
/Erik
On 2013-05-01 23:06, erikja wrote:
> Hi and thanks for this reply.
>
> I wish, that I have saved what I found after the total removal I did.
>
> But I can do it again the uninstall, and then show what I mean.
>
> For instance, after I uninstalled Thunderbird with Yast, and
> reinstalled it, all my account details was left, and
> active again after the removal.
This is intentional, and documented behaviour.
> After I searched/removed leftovers, I could again install Thunderbird,
> and now I should set up my account again.
You could simply:
stop thunderbird
remove the “.thunderbird” directory on your home.
start thunderbird
and it would have worked perfectly.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
What is the deal with pony and barbie ?
/Erik opensuse 12.3
The barbie was ironic. I was effectively thinking of an pictured example and my nieces came into my mind.
Well, there is a program from the gnome area that can do and one from KDE.
Gnome (also usable under KDE): bleachbit. But be cautious not to erase things that you want to hold. So read all details.
KDE: sweeper (I have it as spazzino as my interface is Italian) author Rolf Hoelzer, version 1.9 is current. This is a program dedicated to erase user-traces on a system.
Have a look which one you like most. But as I said: be cautious because the really do what they promise. They clean.
P.S. and do not reply to the barbie post any more pls. This picture seems to have the tendency of “replicate” LOL, that was of course not the intention. :-p
On 05/01/2013 08:56 PM, erikja wrote:
>
> DenverD;2552948 Wrote:
>> On 05/01/2013 08:06 PM, erikja wrote:
>>> Why is it so?
>>
>> probably because you didn’t tell YaST/zypper to remove all
>> dependencies…which did you use?
>>
>
> I did right click in Yast, and choosed to delete
that is only half of the step needed to completely remove all
dependencies…so, after the right click on the item and chosing
“Delete”, the ALSO do this:
-click on “Options” (near “Help” in the top of the YaST2 window)
-single left click to place an X in the box next to “Cleanup when
deleting packages”
-single left click the “Accept” button
NOTE 1: that “Cleanup when deleting packages” is NOT sticky, you will
have to check that it is X’ed anytime you have marked an item for
deletion…
NOTE 2: if you delete (say) thunderbird using YaST (or zypper) it
will NOT remove YOUR hidden directory /home/[yourID]/.thunderbird !
nor would it delete the .thunderbird directory of ANY user on your
system…
why? well for one reason all of your emails are probably inside
there…and, it should be nice for you, or any other users on your
syste to be able to keep emails even if the Thunderbird application
is deleted…
anyway, as other have already said: YaST will not remove the
configs/data/etc inside a home folder when uninstalling an
application, nor would you want it to…but, in those cases when you
may want it to, then just rename the directory …
On 2013-05-02 07:46, erikja wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2553000 Wrote:
>> On 2013-05-01 23:06, erikja wrote:
>>> For instance, after I uninstalled Thunderbird with Yast, and
>>> reinstalled it, all my account details was left, and
>>> active again after the removal.
>>
>> This is intentional, and documented behaviour.
>>
> Where is that documented?, link.
Any complete Linux book.
man rpm.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
On 2013-05-02 09:55, dd wrote:
>
> NOTE 2: if you delete (say) thunderbird using YaST (or zypper) it will
> NOT remove YOUR hidden directory /home/[yourID]/.thunderbird ! nor would
> it delete the .thunderbird directory of ANY user on your system…
>
> why? well for one reason all of your emails are probably inside
> there…and, it should be nice for you, or any other users on your syste
> to be able to keep emails even if the Thunderbird application is deleted…
For one reason, my files are mine, and the administrator has no right to
delete them. In some situations it would put the admin in court >:-)
In general, it is a design decision. Rpm installs/delete the files in
the rpm, runs some scripts, but data files created by the software are
never deleted automatically.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)