V2 Update leaves old versions behind

[tmccombs]

Confirm by changing [ ] to [x] below to ensure that it's a bug:

• I've gone though the User Guide and the API reference
• I've searched for previous similar issues and didn't find any solution

Describe the bug
When I update the aws-cli v2 on linux, using the instructions here, it doesn't remove old versions of the awscli. So after several updates I end up with gigabytes of space used by old versions of aws-cli.

Platform/OS/Hardware/Device
Linux

To Reproduce (observed behavior)
Follow instructions at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2-linux.html#cliv2-linux-upgrade to upgrade aws-cli to a new version. Then inspect the folder where the aws-cli is installed, and see old versions still there.

Expected behavior
Upgrading aws-cli shouldn't leave behind old versions.

Or better yet, provide ways to install aws-cli v2 using actual package managers like apt, dnf, maybe PyPi (see #4947) that handles cleaning up old files on upgrade.

[kdaily]

Hi @tmccombs,

Thanks for the report. This was intentional, as the idea was that you may want to use a previous version of the AWS CLI v2 without having to reinstall. The documentation should be more clear about the existing behavior, how you would easily switch versions, and how to remove one completely.

Please stay tuned on issue #4947, and see the recent update posted today:

#4947 (comment)