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I installed SBCL 1.2.3 on Ubuntu 12.04 by downloading sbcl-1.2.3-x86-64-linux-binary.tar.bz2, and running 

sudo bash install.sh

However, I was curious about how I would be able to uninstall it? It has no Makefile (as it is not a source archive), so make uninstall or anything similar would be impossible. The same applies for the Truecrypt 7.1a binary too.

How can I remove these kind of software?

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  • Don't do that. Install the system binaries. If you want more recent versions, they are generally available (and easily backportable) from more recent versions of Ubuntu. In a pinch you could use the Debian version, which is the same thing. For more about backports see unix.stackexchange.com/q/112157/4671 Ping me if you want to know more.
    – Faheem Mitha
    Sep 19, 2014 at 13:28
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    I looked at install.sh. It installs in various locations under /usr/local. Even better, it tells you the pathname after it installs each file. Just run install.sh again, look at the output, and remove whatever it creates under /usr/local, as well as any .old files. It also runs install-info; I don't know offhand what system files that touches.
    – Mark Plotnick
    Sep 19, 2014 at 14:07
  • @mark-plotnic Yeah, I managed to figure that out but thanks anyway. It seems to be doing a few other things too { (unix.stackexchange.com/questions/156413/…) }, I guess they might be install-info's doings.
    – strNOcat
    Sep 19, 2014 at 14:32

2 Answers 2

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You can open install.sh and look what it did. Then you'll have to go through the tedious process of undoing it manually.

But, maybe it was installed in /usr/local and not /usr/?

Lastly, another approach would be finding the binary (e.g. /usr/bin/truecrypt), check its change time (ctime) and then using find to list the files which have a similar ctime or mtime.

find has the option -newer and -newerXY. check it out.

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  • I've checked install.sh, all it did was move some fasl and other binary files around, then changed some environment variables and stuff like that. I was wondering if there was a simple way than manually purging every shred of it
    – strNOcat
    Sep 19, 2014 at 13:36
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    I have one more idea: You could check install.sh for a path where the install goes (usually configurable!), change that to /tmp/test and run bash install.sh. Now you can check the /tmp/test/ folder and files layout and run a script removing that files from / too.
    – Sebastian
    Sep 19, 2014 at 13:39
  • Yeah, thanks; that's a good one! All I need to do is mention $INSTALL_ROOT while installing :)
    – strNOcat
    Sep 19, 2014 at 13:54
  • Ok, I did manage to remove all the files. However, when I run $ sbcl now, it says bash: /usr/local/bin/sbcl: No such file or directory. I guess the reason it's not saying sbcl: command not found is that sbcl must have set some env var down the road, does that sounds correct? (I'm pretty new to bash and all this)
    – strNOcat
    Sep 19, 2014 at 14:29
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    it seems that sbcl is a wrapper (maybe just a shell script, or an alias) which then calls /usr/local/bin/sbcl. Check: which sbcl, whereis sbcl alias, grep sbcl .bashrc. You might find something.
    – Sebastian
    Sep 19, 2014 at 14:31
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These are not general solutions but pertain to the two softwares I mentioned in my question- SBCL 1.2.3 and Truecrypt 7.1a

For SBCL

Using the method Sebastian mentioned in the comments, I did this:

  1. # INSTALL_ROOT=/temp/asbcl sh install.sh

  2. This provided me with following files/ directories (might change in future versions/ across platforms)(Default INSTALL_ROOT is /usr/local/):

(i) INSTALL_ROOT/bin/sbcl

(ii) INSTALL_ROOT/lib/sbcl/

(iii) INSTALL_ROOT/share/doc/sbcl/

(iv) INSTALL_ROOT/share/man/man1/sbcl.1

Removing these files did the trick

  1. # apt-get purge common-lisp-controller

For TRUECRYPT 7.1a

Run /usr/bin/truecrypt-uninstall.sh, they provide it already.

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