Uninstall a bench

Removing the application and wiping the bench’s own data are different acts. The application goes either way; of what the bench holds in its home folder — logs, installed modules, fleets, device configuration — you choose what goes with it. Whatever stays is found as it is by a later install. Runs on a shared disk are never removed.

Keep what you need first

Everything a bench is lives under its home, so copying that folder keeps the bench: its fleets, its device .env files, its installed modules and its history. On another machine, install PLESTY Bench, put the folder in place and start the fleet (Device ▸ Fleet up, or plesty-server fleet up) — that is how a bench moves to a new PC.

A fleet file alone is the portable half: it names modules and versions without carrying them, and a bench installs what it needs on the first start. That is the file to keep in a repository. The .env files, which carry addresses, serial numbers and calibration, are the half that stays on the bench — and nothing in them can be downloaded again.

Windows

Settings ▸ Apps (Apps & features) → PLESTY Bench → Uninstall, or Start ▸ Uninstall PLESTY Bench. The uninstaller asks once, on a list of what this bench holds, one row per item with its size:

A heading ticks everything under it: Logs and job records, Tools the bench installed for itself (the portable git), Installed modules, one row per module, and Fleets and device configuration, one row per fleet, device and the agent’s settings. Everything takes the whole bench home, with anything the list does not name. Leaving every box unticked keeps all of the bench’s data, and it is the default. When the application no longer starts, and so cannot say what it holds, the uninstaller asks about the parts instead: logs (with the process state and the portable git), modules, configuration, or everything.

Cancel keeps the application and every part of the bench, but by then the uninstaller has already begun: the Start-menu entries and the Apps entry are gone. Run setup.exe again to get them back, and to be able to uninstall later.

macOS and Linux

plesty-server fleet down             # stop what the bench runs
plesty-server purge --all --yes      # optional: the bench's own data — see below
                                     # (or remove only part of it)
uv tool uninstall plesty-server
rm -rf ~/Applications/"PLESTY Bench.app"     # or the .desktop entry on Linux

Remove the data before uninstalling: purge is a command of the application.

Remove only part of the data

plesty-server purge takes away parts of the bench, with or without uninstalling — the same choice the Windows uninstaller offers:

plesty-server purge --list           # names, sizes, and what each one costs
plesty-server purge logs state --yes
plesty-server purge --all --yes

Part	Holds	Cost of losing it
logs	Device server logs, the traffic history read out of them, the record of past installs, updates and field-test runs	History only
state	Which servers this bench thought were running, on which ports	Rebuilt at the next start
packages	Every installed module, its environment and any git checkout	The largest part; means downloading them again
tools	The portable git the bench fetched for itself on Windows	Fetched again when needed
config	Fleets, the agent’s endpoint and token, and every device’s .env — addresses, serial numbers, calibration	Nothing here can be downloaded again

Each part can also be removed one item at a time. purge --list names the items under the parts:

Item	What it is
logs:devices, logs:jobs	The device server logs, or the job records and their logs
module:<package>	One installed module, all its versions and its git checkout
venv:<device>	A device environment left by an older bench
fleet:<file>	One fleet file in fleets/
device:<name>	One device’s .env and working folder
agent	The agent’s endpoint and token
runs:<experiment>	The runs of one experiment kept in the home (see below)

plesty-server purge fleet:trial.yaml device:anc300 --yes

A single installed module goes more simply from the console: Hub ▸ Installed modules… ▸ Uninstall.

No part touches runs/, where experiment runs land when their module declares no shared data root: a measurement is what the operator came for, and clearing working files must not reach it; only a runs:<experiment> item named on its own does. Runs on a shared disk are never removed. Nor does any part take peers.yaml, a master’s list of benches with their tokens. --all removes the home folder itself, and both with it.

Stop the fleet first (plesty-server fleet down): a running server holds its environment open.

--yes is required for anything destructive, and an unknown part name is refused before anything is removed rather than after — a typo must not silently keep data somebody asked to be rid of. A file that will not delete is reported and the rest still goes: an uninstall that stops at the first locked file leaves more behind than one that carries on and says what it could not take.