deleting old packages

[neos]

hey,
ive downloaded ximian gnome 1.4 onto a cd, and i am installing it locally. I am running RedHat Linux 7.1. During the installation i get errors in the terminal window saying something like "error: unable to recursively delete directory, contains files", or something like that. how do i configure the program to, or system to allow the files to be deleted recursively automatically in the installation. I 've givven the installation full rwx permissions, and all the packages. and ive configured the system for "Dont confirm deltion of files". so, any1 know how i can install the ximian gnome 1.4, and delete the old packages at the same time. without me having to do it manually after (preferibly)

 

[Out0fOrder]

Hello,
Assuming that your using RPMs. If you wish to update the install, try typing:

rpm -U $FileName

This will upgrade the existing install of your program, presumably deleting the older files and replacing them with the new ones from the package.

Hope this NFO helped,
-Out0fOrder

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

ximian gnome installs seem to work by firstly uninstalling old (equivalent) packages and then installing the ximian rpms. When you uninstall a rpm (rpm -e packagename) it runs an uninstall script which generally does not remove files that it didn't install in the first place. For example the install might create a directory and place some files in that directory. If you then (knowingly or otherwise) put other files in that directory rpm won't blindly zap things it doesn't know about.

If you know where the ximian installer is falling over you could manually remove the rpm (you probably have to use --nodeps to get it to ignore dependencies), e.g. :

rpm -e --nodeps packagename

Otherwise, you may have to manually remove the offending directory with :

cd name_of_parent_directory
rm -rf name_of_target_directory

e.g.

cd /tmp/
rm -rf myjunk

(would remove /tmp/myjunk and everything underneath it)

Be very careful with 'rm -rf' - make sure you are in the correct directory because this will recursively delete everything in the directory tree from the start point you give it.

Hope this helps