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Re: freeing up some space

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On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 01:25:27PM -0500, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote:
> So I'm poking around with mc,  and happened across /var/cache/apt/archives which has a LOT of *.deb files in it, and which seems to include many versions of the same package,  some of them many years old,  going all the way back to 2013.  I guess I've been running debian a little longer than I'd thought...
> 
> Is it okay to just delete older versions of these files?  Or should I be doing something using one of the package management tools?  I've mostly used synaptic,  but am also aware of apt-get,  apt,  aptitude,  and am not real clear on their comparative capabilities.
> 

apt-get clean is a fairly useful command.

The original suggestion when you started the upgrade process was to 
do this in several steps but without spending days between and also
running apt-get autoremove between each step.

Synaptic is a graphical front end: behind that are tools like apt-get / 
aptitude/ apt
which are the command line tools.

Below that is dpkg - below that is manual editing of the package database
and files which is really only recommended as a very last resort when
your system is broken to a severe extent.

> I'm looking at over 7500 files amounting to over 9.5GB.
> 
> I also see /var/cache/dictionaries-common,  which appears to be tied to a spelling checker,  which I don't use here.  And /var/cache/samba,  which I also don't use -- there isn't a windoze machine around here at all.
> 
> What's the best way to get all of this excess stuff out of the system?
> 

If you remove the package that created the cache, then there are also
purge commands to remove configuration files and other directories: if
these can't remove all files, they will normally throw up a warning
saying why not.

All best, as ever,

Andy Cater

> 
> -- 
> Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
> ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
> be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
> -
> Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James 
> M Dakin
> 

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Thread

freeing up some space "Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> - 2022-01-11 19:30 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2022-01-11 20:00 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2022-01-11 20:00 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space Cindy Sue Causey <butterflybytes@gmail.com> - 2022-01-11 20:30 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-01-11 21:10 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space "Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> - 2022-01-11 22:40 +0100
      Re: freeing up some space "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-01-11 22:50 +0100
      Re: freeing up some space Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2022-01-15 17:00 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-01-11 21:10 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space Kent West <westk@acu.edu> - 2022-01-11 22:10 +0100
      Re: freeing up some space "c. marlow" <debian@cwm030.com> - 2022-01-11 23:20 +0100
        Re: freeing up some space "c. marlow" <debian@cwm030.com> - 2022-01-11 23:30 +0100
        Re: freeing up some space Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2022-01-11 23:40 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2022-01-12 00:20 +0100
      Re: freeing up some space David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-01-12 00:30 +0100
      Re: freeing up some space Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2022-01-12 00:30 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space Marco Möller <talby@debianlists.mobilxpress.net> - 2022-01-11 23:10 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space Ralph Katz <ralph@ralphkatz.com> - 2022-01-12 04:20 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2022-01-12 05:10 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space "Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> - 2022-01-12 17:00 +0100
  Re: freeing up some space David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-01-12 06:50 +0100
    Re: freeing up some space "Roy J. Tellason, Sr." <roy@rtellason.com> - 2022-01-12 17:10 +0100

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