[chbot] Updating a program: which Way did I use to install it?

[Volker Kuhlmann]

On Tue 25 Aug 2020 11:29:05 NZST +1200, Stephen Irons wrote:

> General grumble

Agreed.

Search all files in /var for the name of the program. The location or
name of any file containing the name of the program should give pretty
good indication of how it was installed. That's assuming you installed
the program as root for use by all users on the system. Uninstall it
(this won't remove user config etc files).

> '~/.local/bin/musescore-common'. There also exists
> '~/.local/bin/mscore-common', where 'mscore' used to be the name of

That suggests the program was installed by a user, not by root. Track
down all files belonging to the program, in .config/, .local/, .cache/,
there might be others, and delete the lot.

Then you install it again by Your Preferred Method.

> *** Is any one of these packaging systems (AppImage, Flatpak, Snap,
> Python pip) significantly better or worse than any other? What are
> the pros and cons?

I'd expect each one has the biggest whatsit. Personally python pip
annoys me because it wants to run as root, and I'm not going to run some
behemoth as root without knowing exactly what it'll do, which I don't,
especially when it's installing system files and I dunno what it
overwrites in the process. That's why system native packagers are
preferred, they don' stuff up your system.

> *** Are there any rules of thumb to work out which Way to update an
> arbitrary program?

Yes, kindof. Don't install anything outside the system's native package
manager...

Or install into a separate user and you don't have to worry about
harakiri. When you get sick of it, delete user and all owned files.

Volker

-- 
Volker Kuhlmann
http://volker.top.geek.nz/	Please do not CC list postings to me.