Arch Linux

melonsmasher100

Member

Registered: 2018-05-05

Posts: 2

Cleaning up system from things installed from git repos

I am fairly new and just installed arch for the first time. I have used other distros for a while but this question might still be dumb (hopefully not!).

If I don't install packages/software with pacman, how can I keep track of these programs later on. Will they not clutter my system? Say I clone 10 git repos for whatever reason and run make, make install, make clean. Then utilize the functionality of these git repos once. I then 2 months later want to clean up my system and have removed the git repos from my system and don't remember which repos they were. Can I somehow figure out which files/what packages are not used by me anymore and remove them? Or do I have to keep the git repos to keep track of them?

If I have to keep them, what if I make install from version x on a git repo and try to run make uninstall from version y of that git repo?

dockland

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2015-06-06

Posts: 861

Re: Cleaning up system from things installed from git repos

You can monitor the repo(s) with RSS

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ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: Cleaning up system from things installed from git repos

To prevent this from happening in the first place, it's best to build packages from git sources with makepkg, and install with pacman. Check AUR for already made PKGBUILDs, or you can create them yourself:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Creating_packages
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VC … guidelines

If you already installed foreign packages, you can try identifying files not owned by any package.

ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,962

Website

Re: Cleaning up system from things installed from git repos

If you installed everything under /usr/local then it might be easier to delete stuff, but as ooo said write your own PKGBUILDs and let pacman keep track of your software

melonsmasher100

Member

Registered: 2018-05-05

Posts: 2

Re: Cleaning up system from things installed from git repos

Thanks for the tips!