Apps Audit Uninstall - Very underrated!! Why not integrate with AppBrowser?

[baz]

I was very happy to discover Apps Audit in the Control Panel today. I've read most of the docs and lots of the forum and never saw a mention of it. Until I found it, if I wanted to uninstall an app I would manually record and compare it's dependencies and remove each one individually. With Apps Audit, I can "Mark for Deletion" and it does it automatically on next reboot. One question is how/when/where does it do this? I know it's related to rebooting (of course) but when does it delete the tce's and where is the config file for this?

Also, I've read a lot of posts about uninstalling apps and a special uninstall-tcz app that's no longer supported because it is too complicated to backport etc. - but this is all related to uninstalling apps from memory, while the app is running, during the current session. I think most people just care about being able to remove all the files and their dependencies, regardless of whether it requires a reboot or not - especially noobs. I certainly wish I knew about this the first 100 times I reformatted TC because I was uneasy about what junk files lingered from all my app testing.

So why not place that functionality in its most natural place - the AppBrowser? It is logical to have "install" and "uninstall" together. When a user clicks it, a message could popup telling them that the app has been marked for removal and will be gone by next boot. No matter how noob you are, you are going to know the AppBrowser, but it could be a  long time before you bump into the cryptically named Apps Audit buried in the cpanel to find the hidden option needed to uninstall an app! It's so fundamental to using the system that it should be way more prominently featured.

Just some thoughts,
Baz

[roberts]

Appbrowser is useful across all modes of TC/MC operation, while appsaudit is for frugal type installs, i.e., where one has a tce folder. Cloud mode and even with PPI one does not need or necessarily  have a tce folder. However appsaudit is still evolving and you will see a new use of it in Tiny Core v2.7

[baz]

Oh I see, that makes a lot of sense. Perhaps it could be featured more prominently in the wiki or something similar. It is really too useful to be where it is, so I look forward to the update!

[jpeters]

Also check out tcz updating script, which has a tutorial. Includes removing/updating/installing/checking/searching functions for extensions and dependencies.     eg. "update -rem" lists extensions from tce dir in Dialog for removal from the tce dir.  "update -dp <app>"  lists the app's dependencies.  "update -sd <dep>" shows you all apps that use that extension.  

[baz]

Interesting thank you. I would still like to know how/when/where Apps Audit removes apps? I know it's related to rebooting but when does it delete the tce's and where is the config file for this?

[roberts]

Appsaudit safely removes extensions upon shutdown. That 'marked list' for removal created in appsaudit is processed in rc.shutdown, that ensures that no other app could be currentlt using the extension to be deleted.

The config file is created during the 'build database' selection. appsaudit is built only with that which is in the base system, i.e., it is written in ash,awk,and fltk. The fltk GUI actually calls the command line tce-audit. So even microcore or tinycore without X can use tce-audit. tce-audit is an ash script with calls to awk for database processing.

Appsaudit's database is currently created in /tmp/tce.db, a plain text file. Appsaudit is only as good as current  collection of .dep files, which is why they are currently fetched and the database is not stored.

[TamusJRoyce]

Thank you for pointing out this great app.  It seems to work very well, with one exception.  after building the database, I get an issue where the md5.txt's are not found when trying to use appbrowser to install files.  After a restart it was ok  , but I am glad apps audit isn't being pushed into appbrowser in a rush.

And thanks again for digg'ing a program that's been in front of me this whole time.  A simple re-boot to both uninstall and fix appbrowser is well worth it.