How to remove a package I compiled and installed manually?

Question

I recently compiled and installed Git on a new install of Mac OS 10.6 but it didn't install the documentation.

I now realize I should've used the precompiled package offered here: http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/downloads/list

How do I remove all the files that I added to my system using make install with the Git source code?

Edit: I've had similar problems in the past with other packages, too. For example, ./configure with the incorrect --prefix= or something. What's the general practice for removing unix packages?

Answer 1

make uninstall often works. If your makefile doesn't support that, then your best bet might be to run make -n install (which will list the steps that make install does without actually doing them) and manually reverse its steps.

You can also look at different distros' Git packages (such as Debian's) to see what files those packages install. You might have to adjust the paths a bit for an install from source, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what files need to be deleted. (Debian, for example, splits Git between several packages, so you might need to check the file lists for each.)