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I was recently playing around with a bash shell and deleted some files, like my .bashrc file. I mostly knew what I was doing, but I wanted to experiment with my new account. I thought, "I will delete these files just to see what happens; if I end up breaking something I've lost nothing because I have nothing invested." Now I've, sort of, ruined my development environment and I want to start over, I want to go back to the safety of a fresh start. I believe this is an essential usability feature for any application, users should never feel more than one click way from familiar ground.

I propose a "reset my account" button which will restore an account to it's original state.

I don't know to what extent people can mess up PythonAnywhere, but I imagine there could be some tricky problems. Software can be very complex, and it's a good feeling to know "I setup this application once, and I can do it again." If you have your code and content backed up then resetting your account and redeploying your application seems like a good last resort for solving problems.

Sounds like a good idea, although of course it's a little tricky to decide exactly what it should do.

I guess there's always the nuclear option - delete all files, reset web app environment and kill all terminals. That would clearly need an extremely large disclaimer and probably some very definitive confirmation (such as entering "I understand this will delete all my files" in a text box).

I suppose it might also be useful to have a way to clear the currently configured web app back to its default state, kill all terminals and also reset any files like .bashrc which might affect operation. It's worth noting that all of this is something that can be achieved with the current dashboard, as far as I'm aware (with the possible exception of resetting the web app, although you can replace it with something else).

Probably to gather requirements on this, people should report what was actually causing their problem so the team can gather a set of common operations which could be useful to streamline.

Hi Buttons840 -- thanks for the suggestion! As Cartroo says, that's certainly something we could do but we'd have to be super-careful to make sure people realised what they were letting themselves in for -- after all, we don't want them to accidentally wipe out months of their work.

Would you like us to take a look at your home directory and manually patch it up with the original contents? Is there anything you'd like us to preserve? Use the "Send feedback" link above if there's anything private.

I want this feature also.

In the alternative, can you list steps to delete all of the correct files so pythonAnywhere thinks there was not an app there in the first place, and offers to upload my packed web2py app from my PC?

thanks,

Alex Glaros

Just for completeness, with free accounts there's always the option of just opening a new one?

@alexglaros -- just to make sure I understand -- you want to delete all existing web2py apps and start afresh?

To do that:

• Go to the "Web" tab, and delete all web apps from there.
• Go to the "Files" tab, and delete all directories apart from "Dropbox" (which you can't delete).

Then go back to the "Web" tab, and create a new web2py app.

I would also like the possibility to reset my account as I have messed up my .bashrc file...

I've copied the original .bashrc you would have had into your home directory as default-.bashrc

That was quick! :) Thanks!!

No problem!

Go to the "Web" tab, and delete all web apps from there. Go to the "Files" tab, and delete all directories apart from "Dropbox" (which you can't delete).

There's no "delete" button on my "web" page. Is this because I'm in a free account?

My problem is I created an app when I first set up my account. I do not want this app anymore. So now I'm working through a tutorial on a different app and I am unable to get rid of the files from the first app. It is pulling everything into the second app. I'm a learner and fine with having just one app at a time. What can I do about this? Please advise.

Have you looked all the way down to the bottom of the "Web" tab? The delete button should be there -- it's red.

Go to your PA Dashboard and select the Web tab at the top. Your web app details should be displayed, and at the bottom there should be some text about 'Delete' and a big red Delete button.

HTH Jim

Hi there, guys i'm really need reset my files, pls help

Thx

I see you sent an email about this too -- I've replied to that.

I also would like this feature.

Thanks, noted! (Currently, with a free account, the easiest procedure is to create a new account, or request deleting the "broken" one and recreating it again, if you want to keep the username)