On 05/26/14 19:51, Sudhir Khanger wrote:
On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Ed Greshko
<ed.greshko(a)greshko.com> wrote:
>
> You are confusing things, IMHO, we are not talking about the "prerogative"
of a system admin but how things are/should work.
>
> You seem to be suggesting that....
>
> yum erase google-chrome-stable
>
> remove *all* data that has ever been associated with Google-Chrome for *all* users.
I take it you would want it to remove, as you said, all users
~/.local/share/applications/*chrome* as well as ~/.config/google-chrome for every single
user on the system?
>
> What if the intention or action of the admin is to....
>
> yum erase google-chrome-stable
> yum install google-chrome-stable
>
> you've now wiped out the user's data. Does that really sound like a good
idea to you?
>
> Is it your contention that all applications should delete the configuration details
held in ~/.config of all users when those applications are removed? Are you going to
modify yum, rpm and all package management software to add a switch to "retain
user's data"?
>
I like the idea of "remove" which removes just the package and
"erase"
which erases everything automatically-created-and-hidden-by-system.
From time to time software start misbehaving or an update that brings
huge changes and it won't work properly because software has been
updated but don't know how to handle conflicting system files. In that
case a simple switch to removing things completely is helpful.
Thank you for *not* answering any of my questions or clarifying your wishes.
Yum man page has nothing on what erase does.
I don't run a multi-user setup so that is something beyond my concern.
While it may be something beyond your concern the tools to manage a system
aren't written for you and you alone. They are tools written to meet the needs of the
majority of users.
--
Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own. You may both be
wrong. -- Dandemis