[wpkg-users] Will WPKG uninstall software it did not install?

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Peter,

> Simply put if for some reason I decide to rollout Firefox v3.5 to all of
> my clients but some of my users have already installed v3.6 then wpkg
> may install the older version over the top of the newer version assuming
> I use a check condition that specifies the file version as v3.5..
> 
> In this scenario wpkg.js would check for the v3.5 file and when it
> doesn't find it then it would attempt to install v3.5 using the install
> commands in the package definition file, regardless of whether v3.6 is
> installed or not.

But in this case I would consider this to be exactly the expected behavior.
You're assigning a Firefox package to the profile which is assigned to a
specific host. So you want to make sure this host has Firefox 3.5 installed. So
WPKG will assure assuming you pass the necessary commands to WPKG.
It would also be possible to ALLOW people to install new versions by defining
the checks accordingly (allow version 3.5 or higher).

So from my point of view your scenario does not apply at all to the question
whether WPKG will touch software not under its control or not. At the time you
assign the Firefox package to the host it's under WPKG control (no matter which
version might be on the host already). Then it's also clear that WPKG will
remove Firefox once you remove the package from the profile in the future. But
this case is the "package under WPKG control" use case and not related at all to
the case of Tomas where he asked if a completely unrelated package will be
touched by WPKG.

I understood the question in a way that he wants to know if WPKG will uninstall
"Microsoft Office" if he has a "Microsoft Office" package in packages.xml but
it's not assigned to the host but installed on the host already. The answer to
this question is simply "No" because WPKG will not look for "Microsoft Office"
on this system as long as the package is not assigned to the host.

WPKG will only take control of software packages which are assigned to the host
at any point in time.

br,
Rainer