Comment 0 for bug 684495

Revision history for this message
Julien Funk (jaboing) wrote : 'Remove' does not actually remove data (until later)

Binary package hint: software-center

Bug Description: 'Remove' does not actually remove data (until later). When I click to remove an app in Software Center, the app data (200mb in the case of Vendetta) is left on my computer for days until apt clears the cache. If a user wanted to clear space on their machine and was uninstalling applications for the purpose of clearing space, this would be very frustrating. Many users are people who do not know how to clear the apt cache (or in many cases, don't even know apt exists, never mind a cache)

OS: Ubuntu 10.04
Steps To Reproduce: See email thread below...
Expected Result:
At best: a prompt asking the user if they would like to remove all data associated with the application immediately. A warning that removing the application.

On Wed, Dec 01, 2010 at 04:21:34PM -0800, Julien Funk wrote:
> Hey Michael,
> I was recently testing the zero $ purchase of Vendetta online. The
> software installed properly after downloading 200mb of content.
>
> Next, I removed it using Software Center and reinstalled it again.
> Everything installed and uninstalled visually. I was unable to find
> Vendetta in the list.
>
> Next, I installed it again. It installed in a matter of seconds without
> downloading the 200mb of content again.
>
> I would expect a prompt when 'Remove' was clicked to delete all content
> associated with the application.

[mvo]
Right, this has to do with the way apt works, it will cache the
downloaded deb package for a certain amount of time (around two days
by default) in /var/cache/apt/archives. This is true for all debs.

I agree that its kind of odd (and unexpected) that remove does not
remove the package but only the content of the package.

Cheers,
 Michael
[/mvo]