“purge” or “forcibly uninstall”

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Install putty
2. delete its uninstaller file (c:\Program Files\putty\unins000.exe) without 
going through its uninstaller
3. try to reinstall it using npackd

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
That I would have an option to reinstall/upgrade it in its place even though 
the latest version is marked installed so that I can restore the installation. 
Instead, npackd just gives errors when I try to uninstall it and does not give 
me an option to upgrade it to itself or reinstall or delete the installation 
entry.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
1.18.7 on Windows 8.1 64-bit.

Please provide any additional information below.
I cannot uninstall putty through npackd's UI. I think if I can just mark it as 
not being installed in the first place, npackd would let me install it again. I 
worked around this issue by deleting the C:\Program Files\putty folder.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by ohnobinki on 8 Feb 2014 at 6:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

you're right, in-place upgrades and package repair are not supported. 

A package repair is kind of pointless. It would be necessary to store the 
downloaded installers forever. Otherwise you could just delete the directory 
manually and install it again as you did in the case above (this is the 
recommended way). Package repair would also require one more script for each 
package version.

In-place upgrades are more interesting, but this would also require one more 
script per package version. Do you have your own package repository? I don't 
know anybody who would agree to write these scripts for the default repository.

Original comment by tim.lebe...@gmail.com on 9 Feb 2014 at 9:17

• Changed title: Allow updating a program to its current version. (In-place upgrades & package repair)
• Changed state: Thinking
• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Oops, well, sorry for the confusion. When I said “upgrade it in its place” 
I meant “repair”. I have not looked closely at all at npackd’s 
implementation, but from your comments I am inferring that an upgrade is 1. 
uninstall old version 2. install new version. This is simple and lets things be 
handled more cleanly than trying to add a new in-place upgrade feature. Thus, I 
only intended to ask for a “repair” feature in this issue.

Based on your comments, I think what would have helped me in my situation would 
have been a “purge” or “forcibly uninstall” option which would delete 
the installation folder on the user’s behalf. Of course, if this is added, it 
should add warnings about bypassing the package maintainer’s uninstall 
scripts and how this can leave things dirty. But at least it would give a 
somewhat friendly way to get out of the situation I was in. Or maybe just some 
suggestions in the error message that shows up when the uninstaller is missing 
could include deleting the directory. idk.

I am not using my own repository or packages. There are some packages I use 
that I might eventually be interested in adding to the package repository, but 
I am not sure I am up to it or will allocate the time necessary ;-).

Original comment by ohnobinki on 10 Feb 2014 at 6:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by tim.lebe...@gmail.com on 23 Sep 2014 at 9:03

• Changed title: “purge” or “forcibly uninstall”