On 9/1/15, Elimar Riesebieter <riese...@lxtec.de> wrote: > * Tony van der Hoff <t...@vanderhoff.org> [2015-09-01 14:17 +0200]: > >> On this jessie box I have started to see /var/lib/apt/lists/partial >> gradually filling the entire 2.7 GiB /var partition with hundreds of >> smallish files. Google show some results for a similar, but not >> identical problem for Ubuntu but I can't find anything matching this. >> >> This problem has developed over the last few days. >> >> A partial directory listing is attached (to circumvent wrapping). >> >> Can anyone suggest a remedy to this problem, please? > > Try > > # apt-get clean > > From apt-get(8): > > clean clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. It > removes everything but the lock file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and > /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/. > > So after an apt-get update /var/lib/apt/lists/partial should be > recharged at least to zero size.
Let us know if it starts filling back up again. I'd already started an answer and had to run outside and... put the trash can on the curb. Part of that answer was to say that location is where at least apt (via apt-get update) temporarily stores "partial" files as its downloading updates from our *_CHOICE_* of repositories. If partial continues magically self-propagating and not emptying, obviously something needs dissected/triggered/toggled off if it's not you manually, consciously performing related [functions] that would result in that activity. If you use something other than apt (apt-get) to update your software, do they offer the option to update automatically? Maybe that's toggled on? I'm just... looking at your output there and comparing it to mine. Your partial for this one, e.g.: 4584913 Sep 1 13:58 ftp.uk.debian.org_debian_dists_jessie_main_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 You're talking about a zip file that got hung up there for some reason. Maybe it's not completely downloaded so then you have to track down why... Or maybe the system's not finishing the transaction after a successful download for some reason? In my case, I've actually sat here and watched it run live. Those partials *APPEAR* to become what's in the next step up, the parent directory, /var/lib/apt/lists. So the question is potentially two-fold. Why is there SO MUCH of that activity if user is NOT manually/knowingly generating it.... and/or why is the process not completing successfully if it's a legitimately approved auto-update? Speaking firsthand, one way it MIGHT happen is if someone is on something like dialup or alternately if they only access the Internet sporadically (i.e. disconnect unexpectedly throughout the day). Those update related downloads would get interrupted, and that MIGHT be one cause for what's showing in OP's partial directory. My take on this is coming from firsthand experience rather than knowing how Debian technically works. I've seen something like OP's directory happen on my system but can't remember the exact circumstances now. In my case of being on dialup, the appearance has occasionally been that a repository's server has cut updates off because the server's tired of struggling under the 967 BYTES download rate on my end...... Cindy :) PS Ok, I just checked my inbox one more time before sending this. Elimar and David replied with David's thought being similar to my own. Compression was a word I was actually looking for. Like something's not completing there that should be so that those files are decompressed and then magically manipulated together to become what's housed in the /var/lib/apt/lists parent directory... :) -- Cindy-Sue Causey Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * runs... behind an ~80-year-old push reel mower *
