Q: How can I uninstall a certain package?
Q: How can I install a newer version of some package without leaving
traces of the older installation?
A: The *.mft files in the manifest subdirectory hold
the lists of all the files included in every package you install. For
example, when you unzip gcc2951b.zip, it puts a file called
gcc2951b.mft into the manifest subdirectory. The easiest
way to remove all those files is to use the *.mft files as
response files to a command which deletes files. For example:
rm -f @manifest/gcc2951b.mft
The rm program is part of the GNU Fileutils package, available as
v2gnu/fil316b.zip from the usual DJGPP FTP sites.
Some packages might not have the *.mft files. In general, you
should complain about such cases; however, if a package installs
entirely into its own directory tree, you can uninstall it by simply
removing that tree:
rm -rf package-dir
(The -r option tells rm to recursively remove all
subdirectories of the named directory package-dir).
When you install a new version of a package, it is best to uninstall the previous version first, like in the above example, and then install the new one. Otherwise, you might leave behind old files that the new version doesn't overwrite, and that will cause problems due to incompatibilities with the new version.