Is deleting an uninstall option?

[Wallex]

Altough I am new to Linux, I already have to delete a program.. or part of it, as it might be. I accidentally installed Gimp when I was logged in as a root, and well, I don't like that, I only want Gimp installed as my 'regular' user, so how do I remove Gimp from my root? Do I just go and delete the Gimp directory inside Root?
I ask this because... well, it seems there are two ways a program is installed: The installation inside your OS (so that every user can 'install' to keep their own personal files) and the installation part inside the Home (in my case, Root), and I just want to remove the second without affecting the first, know what I mean?

[fancypiper]

If you are using one of the major distros, your package manager should handle this. What package manager are you using?

[Wallex]

Ah oops... should've told that before.
Here I use Suse 8.0, I'll go look around where I can 'add/remove' programs... wonder where is that? I doubt there's such a thing.. err.. I just can't assume anything in Linux works like in Windows, right?

[mdwatts]

How did you install Gimp? rpm or source?

[Wallex]

Well Gimp came as just 'another' of the thousands of programs that came in the Suse cd's, and it was installed with the rest of stuff, so I assume it's... probably a rpm installed program, right? Anyway, I heard that if it was Source installed, I probably will just have to delete the folder and 'seek' for any other related files myself (I think I read something about this in some other thread)

[fancypiper]

What package manager does SuSE use?

[Wallex]

package manager? Ah.. um.. I.. it... I don't know. If it helps, I tried opening a .rpm file, and a program called Kpackage came up, so my wonder is it uses that? Is there a way to know for sure?

[mdwatts]

Then to properly uninstall Gimp, you should use

rpm -e gimp

man rpm for lots of other good info.

You can also use Kpackage to install or uninstall rpm packages.

[Wallex]

Hmm... when I open Kpackage, there's nothing in the tab of installed packages, guess this Suse didn't installed all it's programs like that. Well... since Linux is organized the way it is, I think that for me to solve my problem (rid the Root user of Gimp) would be as simple as deleting everything in the root folder that spells 'Gimp', right? Would there be a reason for me to not do that?

[fancypiper]

1. Find the package on the CD and cd to that directory.

2. Try rpm -e gimp*.rpm

3. If that doesn't work, try the full name of the gimp package.

info rpm
man rpm

You may want to install maximum rpm, an in-depth guide to rpm packaging.

[Wallex]

All this RPM stuff sounds a bit difficult... altough I guess I should learn it considering it's the popular and easy way to install programs instead of getting the source and compiling (which is easy... until I want to uninstall, that is). Well, I'll go see what I can do with these RPM issues. Thanks (can never forget to say that!)

[windoze killa]

You think RPMs are a bit confusing. Wait till you have to compile by hand. At least RPMs will generally tell you if you have a missing dependency. RPMs are a pretty cool way of installing. I know there are lots out there who will disagree, but they are the ones that know what they are doing. Some of us are still a little brainwashed by the simplicity of windoze.

[chikn]

SuSE uses Yast2 to install/remove from their cd's however I dont understand what the problem is as i think Yast has to be run as root. The Gimp prolly wont install as a non root user because Im sure it copies files in places not writable by a user.

[Wallex]

No sweat.
Being a college student of computer engineering, I am quite used to the idea of taking the base code, compiling and making it (no new terms so far), and the idea of the RPM is kinda good since it aims for the 'general audience' that aren't computer programmers. I was just confused because, as chikn mentioned, Suse uses Yast to install the software, and now I am pretty certain, Gimp is installed somewhere in the main dirs, the root and user dirs only have the files that one needs as a 'personal' user (sort of not sharing your gradients with anyone's else and so on). I think I'll have to go to yast and uninstall some packages, afterall, I need to uninstall xmms and mozilla in order to upgrade them (or that's what I read in the download pages). Thanks anyway for clearing things up.. specially about the Yast. But.. talking about installing...

[Xander Solis]

SuSE uses rpm.

Originally posted by Wallex
Well Gimp came as just 'another' of the thousands of programs that came in the Suse cd's, and it was installed with the rest of stuff, so I assume it's... probably a rpm installed program, right? Anyway, I heard that if it was Source installed, I probably will just have to delete the folder and 'seek' for any other related files myself (I think I read something about this in some other thread)