There’s an important distinction in OpenACS between installing packages and making them available for use, commonly referred to as "mounting" packages. A single installed package (e.g., file-storage) can be mounted multiple times, within the same or different subsites of the same OpenACS instance. This allows for flexible reuse and instantiation of the same functionality in various parts of your site.
Similarly, when removing packages, it's crucial to differentiate between:
- Unmounting a package: This simply removes the package instance from a specific location (e.g., a subsite), but retains its data and definitions in the database.
- Uninstalling a package: This removes the data model and associated data from the database. However, the source files on disk are not deleted, as doing so might erase local modifications or site-specific customizations.
⚠️ Note: After uninstalling packages, a server restart is typically required to fully clean up internal state and reload the configuration.
Also, keep in mind that some packages are service packages. These are designed to provide backend services and cannot be mounted, so they won’t appear in the mounting interface.
To better understand your issue, could you provide an example of a package you’ve unmounted or removed?
