Spack: Unable to uninstall packages that aren't in Spack

[adamjstewart]

@alalazo I know you were thinking about how to handle things like spack module refresh for packages that were installed on a branch but haven't yet made it into develop. Here is another case that should be solved.

I added a package for py-abipy and installed it. Then I switched back to develop, where this package does not exist. When I run spack uninstall abipy, this is what I get:

$ spack uninstall py-abipy
==> The following packages will be uninstalled:

-- darwin-sierra-x86_64 / [email protected] ---------------------
xkka3du py-abipy@master%clang~gui~ipython

==> Do you want to proceed? [y/N] y
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/bin/spack", line 211, in <module>
    main(sys.argv)
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/bin/spack", line 207, in main
    _main(args, unknown)
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/bin/spack", line 174, in _main
    return_val = command(parser, args)
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/lib/spack/spack/cmd/uninstall.py", line 218, in uninstall
    do_uninstall(uninstall_list, args.force)
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/lib/spack/spack/cmd/uninstall.py", line 153, in do_uninstall
    spack.Package(item).do_uninstall(force=True)
  File "/Users/Adam/spack/lib/spack/spack/package.py", line 534, in __init__
    for v in self.versions:
AttributeError: 'Package' object has no attribute 'versions'

I think this would likely have the same fix: to use the package.py in the installation directory.

[alalazo]

I think this would likely have the same fix: to use the package.py in the installation directory.

@adamjstewart Yes. The root problem is the incoherent construction of a repository for the specs in the DB: the bugs in spack module refresh and spack uninstall are just the symptoms.

[jcftang]

This behaviour also occurs when a package from a private repo is promoted to the upstream and then the package is removed from the private repo.

[alalazo]

@jcftang Repositories act as namespaces, so I think that from Spack perspective removing myrepo.mypackage will not be influenced in any way by the fact that you added builtin.mypackage (at least when you deal with installed packages).