Upon uninstalling of app, app files stays

Stefano

Hi all. Probably someone touched this topic already, but not sure. Anyway. Why upon uninstalling of any app, the app files are not removed from .cache, .config, and .local directories?
The files just sit there and ocuppy the storage. Shouldn't they be removed?
Anyone sorted this, or is it work in progress, for the future OTA's?
Thanks.

domubpkm

That's true.

That's why, as user, i use Ut Tweak Tool to desinstall an app. So before that, i delete cache config and data with UTT..

I can add one more question : why, when we use an app from the open store, the cache isn't automatically deleted (when no necessary at the reopen off the app , maybe necessary for dekko 2) when we close the app.

Stefano

@domubpkm I delete those files with File manager

hummlbach

@Stefano Thats by design and I think its a good practice to not silently (and also not by default) throw away the users data when the application is removed... You never know why the app is about to be removed - maybe the user wants to reinstall it later or import the data into another application the next day. Just think of images, audio files or documents. So although it may be a rare case you'd need at least a button/switch (opt in) to let the user explicitly state he wants to remove his data too. Killing the users data is a bad habbit... Also the data in your home folder was not put there by the package management, but by the application, so its not the package managers concern to remove it (I thinks it does not even have the rights to in our case.)

Stefano

@hummlbach But, when just trying a new app and it doesn't work properly, it's buggy or I don't like it, I prefer to get rid of it completely. Also our phones (currently supported ) are not a computers with a massive storage, so we need to keep an eye on it. Plus, with so many apps leftovers, it will become messy.
Anyway, I like to remove those unwanted ones.

Does Ubuntu distro itself keeps those leftovers files after removing the program/app?

mardy

This topic is a hot one, widely discussed in Canonical too:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/canonical-devices-system-image/+bug/1358294
https://bugs.launchpad.net/canonical-devices-system-image/+bug/1499971

UX designers have always consistently said that all application data should be removed when an application is uninstalled, for the simple reason that the user wouldn't know how to find it or recover it. Some developers have pushed back against this decision, because, well, developers know how to recover this data.

I do agree with the designers: data should be deleted, but the user should be informed about that and should have a chance to abort the uninstall process if he prefers to save his data first.

dobey

It would be acceptable to remove data from cache, but it is not acceptable to remove data automatically from config/data directories. You would be very upset if you removed the gallery app and all of a sudden your entire photo collection was gone, would you not?

dobey

@mardy No, I would say that is a misunderstanding of the situation.

If you uninstall LibreOffice, should Ubuntu delete all the documents created with it from your hard drive? If you remove VSCode, should all the code you wrote also be deleted?

Of course not. The only way it would be acceptable to delete such data when uninstalling, is if the user could be made fully and cogently aware of exactly what data may be deleted, and give them an option to preserve said data without forcing them to keep the app as well.

Only after some large improvements to how we handle data and config storage, should this be considered, I think.