On 2021-06-04 at 17:43, Jon Gough wrote:
On 9/5/21 5:40 pm, Andrey Rahmatullin wrote:
On Sun, May 09, 2021 at 04:41:13PM +1000, Jon Gough wrote:
I now know what path I need to follow, i.e. have a plugin manager
that uses the platform installation process so that the uninstall
process will work and the packages and objects will be tracked.
If this means calling apt from a plugin manager then it's probably
not the best idea.
Not quite. The plugin manager needs to keep track of what it has
installed and where, then during the uninstall process it can be
called, if needed, to perform the cleanup as it would if the main
program were calling it to uninstall one or more plugins.
I'm... fairly sure that the uninstall process must not touch the
contents of user directories, not even indirectly by invoking an
external program (such as this plugin manager) which would do so on its
behalf. If I'm wrong, someone may correct me, but I would be surprised
if it were that easy to bypass this constraint on package design.
In most instances the main application is installed on devices that
have only one user, i.e. phone, tablet, etc.. Even when on a multi
user device, i.e. windows, the device is still only used by one
account.
How can you possibly be sure about that?
(Also, if someone is installing packages on a tablet or smartphone via
apt, they are very likely sufficiently expert to have some idea of how
to clean up after the uninstall as needed; if there's a device in those
categories which uses apt for native install mechanisms, rather than as
an aftermarket extra tool, I'm not aware of it.)
later (maybe even right away)? To have to re-download and reinstall the
plugins could easily be a significant irritation, at the least.
Personally, I would probably see the plugins as being part of the
program configuration; certainly I do so with e.g. the Firefox
extensions I use.
I genuinely do not see what insisting on uninstalling plugins at the
same time as the main program, for all user accounts, provides as a
benefit. The only maybe benefit I've seen suggested is cleaning up to
free disk space, and that seems to me to be so obviously heavily
outweighed by the other considerations that it should clearly not be the
deciding priority.