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(stow.info)Deleting packages

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Deleting packages
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   When the `-D' option is given, the action of Stow is to delete a
package from the target tree.  Note that Stow will not delete anything
it doesn't "own".  Deleting a package does _not_ mean removing it from
the stow directory or discarding the package tree.

   To delete a package, Stow recursively scans the target tree,
skipping over the stow directory (since that is usually a subdirectory
of the target tree) and any other stow directories it encounters (Note:
Multiple stow directories).  Any symlink it finds that points into
the package being deleted is removed.  Any directory that contained
only symlinks to the package being deleted is removed.  Any directory
that, after removing symlinks and empty subdirectories, contains only
symlinks to a single other package, is considered to be a previously
"folded" tree that was "split open."  Stow will re-fold the tree by
removing the symlinks to the surviving package, removing the directory,
then linking the directory back to the surviving package.