Uninstall speed with Python 2.4 MSI

[David Bolen]

Although it isn't often necessary, I tend to be in the habit of
uninstalling Python before updating to new minor releases, or
especially during the alpha/beta cycle.

I'm in the process of uninstalling 2.4a2 to install 2.4a3 and the
uninstall is running absolutely dog slow and burning 100% cpu while
doing it (all going to mshta.exe). Watching the progress bar it
almost seems to be doing a whole bunch of operations per file or
something. The mshta process went away after the removal so I don't
believe there was any other scripting running on my system
simultaneously. It probably took 5+ minutes for the removal. I can't
recall if removing 2.4a1 was like this, but certainly the non-MSI
versions weren't, even when all the docs were separate files.

I was wondering if anyone else has experience this? I may not have
the fastest system at the moment, but this has to have been one of the
slowest (proceeeding, if not absolute time) uninstalls I've done in a
long while.

-- David

[Irmen de Jong]

David Bolen wrote:

simultaneously. It probably took 5+ minutes for the removal. I can't
recall if removing 2.4a1 was like this, but certainly the non-MSI
versions weren't, even when all the docs were separate files.

I was wondering if anyone else has experience this? I may not have
the fastest system at the moment, but this has to have been one of the
slowest (proceeeding, if not absolute time) uninstalls I've done in a
long while.

My experience with MSI based installers is similar: s l o w
Both the installation is slow, and also deinstallation is slow.
It seems to take forever to "build script functions" or whatever
it says it is doing when doing an uninstall.

Probably got something to do with the large number of files
that make up the full Python install.

--Irmen.
PS: I've got an Athlon XP 2400+ with 1Gb of RAM....
You really start wondering where all the CPU cycles go...

[Martin v. Löwis]

David Bolen wrote:

I'm in the process of uninstalling 2.4a2 to install 2.4a3 and the
uninstall is running absolutely dog slow and burning 100% cpu while
doing it (all going to mshta.exe). Watching the progress bar it
almost seems to be doing a whole bunch of operations per file or
something.

Indeed it does. MSI is transactional, meaning that everything is
reverted if the operation fails (e.g. through user cancel). When
overwriting or deleting files, this means installer needs to move
the old file out of the way. Then, when the action is committed,
the file can be deleted. Therefore, during uninstall, you see two
actions: first, it says that it removes files, then, it says that
it removes backup files.

Regards,
Martin

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Martin_v=2E_L=F6wis=22?=]

David Bolen wrote:

I'm in the process of uninstalling 2.4a2 to install 2.4a3 and the
uninstall is running absolutely dog slow and burning 100% cpu while
doing it (all going to mshta.exe). Watching the progress bar it
almost seems to be doing a whole bunch of operations per file or
something.

Indeed it does. MSI is transactional, meaning that everything is
reverted if the operation fails (e.g. through user cancel). When
overwriting or deleting files, this means installer needs to move
the old file out of the way. Then, when the action is committed,
the file can be deleted. Therefore, during uninstall, you see two
actions: first, it says that it removes files, then, it says that
it removes backup files.

Regards,
Martin