bugPSPP - Bugs: bug #40881, Uninstaller Uninstalls to the...

 
 

bug #40881: Uninstaller Uninstalls to the Utmost

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Thu 12 Dec 2013 09:26:52 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Compilation/Portability Severity:  5 - Average
Status:  Fixed Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Closed Release:  None
Effort:  0.00
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Fri 13 Dec 2013 09:37:50 PM UTC, comment #6: 

I solved this issue.

Now a file with the installed files is maintained. (Un)Installing is a bit slower in normal cases, but very much slower when a user wants to install PSPP between his/her own files.

This version is available as the release candidate of today. I could only test it on MSWindows 7 but guess it will also work correct on MSWindows 8.x. Test reports are welcome.

Harry Thijssen <unknown_one>
Thu 12 Dec 2013 10:14:44 PM UTC, comment #5: 


> At least this would create a problem when versions are installed on top of each other without uninstalling before.


Suppose you record the files that were created in a text file.  Then, when you install a new version on top, you can just append the new files to the text file.

> Further this will still be a problem if 2 different programs are installed in the same directory structure. For example ../bin will contain *.dll files. How can I know if these are not used by other programs too????


You can't, but at least you'd only delete files can be reinstalled with the other program's installer, rather than deleting user data.

Ben Pfaff <blp>
Group administrator
Thu 12 Dec 2013 10:11:33 PM UTC, comment #4: 

At least this would create a problem when versions are installed on top of each other without uninstalling before. Further this will still be a problem if 2 different programs are installed in the same directory structure. For example ../bin will contain *.dll files. How can I know if these are not used by other programs too????

This is avoided in the current build by using a separate directory. But if a users plays with that.....

The only solution I see is to let the installer enforce the use of a new subdirectory.


Harry Thijssen <unknown_one>
Thu 12 Dec 2013 09:58:25 PM UTC, comment #3: 

Perhaps the installer could make a list of the files that it created as part of installation, and then at uninstallation time only delete those files?  That is standard procedure in other environments.

Ben Pfaff <blp>
Group administrator
Thu 12 Dec 2013 09:54:05 PM UTC, comment #2: 

The problem arises if a user decides not to use the defaults and not to install PSPP in a separate directory as the installer suggests. Installing software in the directory Program Files and installing it in its own PSPP subdirectory is a common practice in MSWindows. Both is suggested by the installer.In this situation c:\program files\PSPP is changed in c:\users\myname by the user. If it was changed in c:\users\myname\PSPP or c:\users\myname\mypspp, which looks more logical to me, it wouldn't have created a problem.

I will see if I can do anything about it but it will be though to let the installer handle this in a different way without creating a situation which is very inconvenient for users who are using the defaults.

Harry Thijssen <unknown_one>
Thu 12 Dec 2013 09:30:53 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Wow, that's a huge bug.  I'll make sure the PSPP for Windows builder knows about it.

Ben Pfaff <blp>
Group administrator
Thu 12 Dec 2013 09:26:52 PM UTC, original submission:  

Hi,

I installed PSPP on Windows 7 because my computer didn't have SPSS for a short time. The deparment I work for hadn't purchased new licenses, so I thought I'd give you guys a try in the interim. I support open source software. I use Linux at home. Why not? PSPP worked fine but I decided to go back to SPSS once licenses were purchased. Familiarity or something.

Anyway, I went to uninstall PSPP, and in addition to uninstalling what it should, it also deleted the contents of C:/Users/my_name_here. Desktop, Documents, the whole shebang. Thankfully not much of importance was lost, but it's a big inconvenience to recreate what I hadn't yet backed up from the past few days.

If you want to dismiss this with "shoulda used a free OS" or "shoulda backed yr data up better", whatever. This is a pretty careless oversight on your part and I thought you should be aware of the bug.

Hugs and kisses xoxoxoxo

Anonymous

 

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    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2013-12-24 jmd CategoryNone Compilation/Portability
        StatusNone Fixed
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed

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