#28: Always create uninstaller
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Reporter: jgbai...@gmail.com | Owner: refold
Type: enhancement | Status: new
Priority: minor | Milestone:
Component: Windows installer | Resolution:
Keywords: |
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Comment (by anonymous):
> Presumably the "Just unpack the files" option doesn't want to create an
uninstaller.
Even unpacking files has to be undoable (though it is easy enough if all
files are under a common root). There might be an issue in whether or not
to register the uninstaller in the registry if the user has asked for an
installation mode that doesn't affect the registry in any way, but this
could be resolved (by documenting what is going on, so users know what -if
anything- that choice is meant to accomplish, by simply creating an
uninstaller without registering it, or by not creating an uninstaller if
all that happens is that all files are unpacked under a common root).
As I understand the bug report, it says two things: (a) options offered
aren't documented well enough for users to make informed choices and (b)
an uninstaller is just the inverse of the installer, so once you've made
your choices for the installer (eg, no meddling with registry or
environment variables), you shouldn't have to make any additional choices
for the uninstaller. Solving (a) would make it obvious that there is no
unambiguous default for (b): "You've chosen unpack only. That means that
no uninstaller will be registered, you can uninstall by simply removing
<directory>.". This violates the expectation that installers should
register uninstallers, but then the software won't be "installed", just
unpacked, in that mode, so it might be fine, if explained.
>As I understand it, that option is supposed to be the moral equivalent of
unpacking a .zip file. The "Just unpack the files" option is there due to
popular demand from users who do not trust installers. Arguably we could
move that option out and literally provide a .zip version and thus
simplify the installer.
Providing a .zip might be useful, but that *must not* remove the "unpack
only" option from the installer. In this particular round, one of the
issues that surfaced after release was that the installer uses a script
function to modify PATH that just happens to misbehave if the PATH is long
enough. If the uninstaller works as it should, users affected by this
should be able to restore their system by running the uninstaller, then be
able to use the installer in "unpack only" mode, without having to fetch
another 50 megabyte copy of the same files.
As nearly every Haskell installer before, this one has given further
reason not to trust Haskell installers (mostly just too many variations of
windows configurations, too many things that can go wrong, for any
volunteer effort to avoid all traps in the first attempt; plus some
inertia against following suggestions from experience in the face of self-
imposed deadlines), so please do not remove the failsafes!-)
--
Ticket URL: <http://trac.haskell.org/haskell-platform/ticket/28#comment:2>
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