bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #49330, Stale files after make install

 
 

bug #49330: Stale files after make install

Submitter:  Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Submitted:  Thu 13 Oct 2016 10:18:57 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Configuration and Build System Severity:  3 - Normal
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  Installation Failure
Status:  Wont Fix Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Godfrey Open/Closed:  * Closed
Release:  * dev Operating System:  * Any
Fixed Release:  None Planned Release:  None
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Thu 13 Oct 2016 06:16:53 PM UTC, comment #4: 

It might be useful if this were explained (probably
in the E.4 Installation Problems Section of the Manual,
and on the web).

This would tend to reduce the number of times this problem
comes up and has to be explained again.

I use a simple script, except when I forget....

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member
Thu 13 Oct 2016 05:53:30 PM UTC, comment #3: 

But in any case, I agree that it is outside the scope of Octave to solve this problem.

John W. Eaton <jwe>
Group administrator
Thu 13 Oct 2016 05:52:42 PM UTC, comment #2: 

One solution would be to create a list of all files that were installed, probably along with checksums, and create a tool to remove those if they still matched and warn otherwise, giving the user the choice of what to do.  But that's more like a package system, and that's not really the purpose of autotools so doubt it would get much support from autotools developers.

If you build with --prefix set to a directory that is just for Octave, then it is easy enough to just rm -rf that directory tree before doing "make install".  But --prefix doesn't have to be unique to Octave.  If --prefix is /usr, then I don't think you want to be doing "rm -rf /usr" before proceeding with the rest of the installation.


John W. Eaton <jwe>
Group administrator
Thu 13 Oct 2016 05:25:19 PM UTC, comment #1: 

There is no solution for this. If you are following the development branch and continually installing from development releases, the only way to make that work is to delete the previous install yourself.

If a new m-file is created some time during the development of 4.3.0, and then later deleted because it was a mistake, then yes that stale file will sit in the install directory if you don't delete it yourself. This is the way every autotools based project works and I don't think Octave should do anything above and beyond what every other project out there does.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Thu 13 Oct 2016 10:18:57 AM UTC, original submission:  

In my most recent case of a dev build,
/usr/local/share/octave/4.3.0+/m/linear-algebra/gsvd.m
was left in the install even though gsvd.m had been moved.

This is a long-standing problem. The safest action would
be for make install to "pre-clear" (rm -rf ...) all directories
down the root paths for the new installation.
This means,
rm -rf /usr/local/share/octave/4.3.0+/*
etc. ...
for example.
I cannot think for a way to reliably select the directories that
need to be cleared. So, doing all of them for the given version
seems the only safe choice.

Michael Godfrey <godfrey>
Group Member

 

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    Follow 2 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2016-10-13 rik5 Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2016-10-13 mtmiller StatusNone Wont Fix

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