[wpkg-users] How to handle unknown uninstaller name?

[Kevin Keane]

Pendl Stefan wrote:
>> I'm trying to create a package.xml file for Aspell and a couple of
>> dictionaries.
>>
>> The problem I am having is how to create the <remove> entry.
>> Aspell uses
>> an uninstaller of the style
>>
>> "%PROGRAMFILES%\Aspell\uninsXXX.exe"
>>
>> where XXX is a number.
>>
>>     
>
> You can use FOR and %ComSpec%, but that will remove from 000 to x.
>
> You can count with FOR too, if you know the exact number of files:
>
> <remove cmd='%ComSpec% /c FOR /L %C in (9,-1,0) do "%PROGRAMFILES%\Aspell\unins00%C.exe"' />
>
> If the number exceeds 9 you need to add another line as follows:
>
> <remove cmd='%ComSpec% /c FOR /L %C in (99,-1,10) do "%PROGRAMFILES%\Aspell\unins0%C.exe"' />
>
> You need at least Windows XP to make this work, I think.
>
> The other solution is creating a file containing all the unins... file names, sorting it in reverse order and run each of the files.
>
> For batch scripting, you can find many hints at http://www.robvanderwoude.com/.
>
> You could create a JS script or batch file to do this too, so you could add more error checking there
Thank you and Tomasz for your suggestions! In the end, this is really 
only a partial solution because it doesn't allow removing only one of 
the packages involved and leaving the others intact. For my needs, it is 
sufficient, just feels inelegant...

There is a second scenario where the same issue also arises. Gimp, 
Gnucash, PDFCreator and quite a few other applications use the same 
installer, and if you reinstall them manually, you may also end up with 
such a non-000 uninstaller. In that case, the FOR loop should do the 
trick, I think.

In either case, do you by any chance know what happens to the return codes?

-- 
Kevin Keane
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