Re: FEATURE REQUEST: make uninstall should delete empty directories.

[Tim Van Holder]

Daniel Reed wrote:
> On 2004-03-02T08:34-0600, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> ) On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Hans Deragon wrote:
> ) >    When performing a "make uninstall", I notice that it only deletes the 
> files,
> ) > not the empty directories.  It would be nice that after removing a file, it
> ) > removes all the empty directories recursively.  For example:
> ) If a package supports creating the directory /usr/local (as Automake
> ) does by default) should this directory be recursively removed if a
> ) package is uninstalled?
>
> Not if it is non-empty after everything subordinate to it installed as part
> of the package has been removed.

I would go so far as to say that nothing above $prefix should be
removed.
Just because I installed a package in an otherwise empty hierarchy (e.g.
/foo/this/is/an/empty/hierarchy) does not mean I want 'make uninstall'
to remove that entire hierarchy.  Anything below that which the package
may have created is fair game, but $prefix and above should be
untouchable.
Of course, if the proposed script-based uninstall gets off the ground,
the package could just limit itself to removing those things it actually
created at install time, even if that may leave some empty directories
afterwards.