CMake support "make uninstall"?

Question

I am trying to find some sudo-free solution to enable my users install and unistall my application. Using

set(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX "$ENV{HOME}/opt/${CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME}-${CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION}/") SET(CMAKE_INSTALL_RPATH "$ENV{HOME}/${CPACK_PACKAGE_NAME}-${CPACK_PACKAGE_VERSION}/") 

I can direct the files to the user's home directory, and

make install 

works fine. With reference to What's the opposite of 'make install', ie. how do you uninstall a library in Linux? I did not find any idea, which is sudo-free and is not complex for a non-system-admin person.

1. Is anyhow make uninstall supported by CMake?

2. My uninstall is quite simple: all files go in a subdirectory of the user's home. In principle, removed that new subdirectory could solve the problem. Has make install, with parameters above, any side effect, or I can write in my user's guide that the newly produced subdirectory can be removed as 'uninstall'?

Answer 1

If you want to add an uninstall target you can take a look to the official CMake FAQ at:

https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/community/wikis/FAQ#can-i-do-make-uninstall-with-cmake

If you just want a quick way to uninstall all files, just run:

xargs rm < install_manifest.txt 

install_manifest.txt file is created when you run make install.

Answer 2

No there is not. See in the FAQ from CMake wiki:

By default, CMake does not provide the "make uninstall" target, so you cannot do this. We do not want "make uninstall" to remove useful files from the system.

If you want an "uninstall" target in your project, then nobody prevents you from providing one. You need to delete the files listed in install_manifest.txt file. [followed by some example code]