On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 04:32:20PM -0500, Roy J. Tellason, Sr. wrote: > > Apparently the info about what's in this directory is also stored in some > database somewhere, so just going in there and deleting a bunch of stuff > will probably break something... >
Yes. > > > I've mostly used synaptic, but am also aware of apt-get, apt, > > > aptitude, and am not real > > > clear on their comparative capabilities. > > Time to read some man pages and some of the docs that also got installed on > my system... :-) > > > > 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? > > > > Somebody (maybe more than one somebody) suggested a "clean" option, but > apparently that will get rid of *ALL* of those files. I'd kinda prefer to > keep the most recent of any of them that are still being used. In perusing > the docs for aptitude, I see that there's an option in there to "clean > obsolete files", which sounds like it'll do just that. I don't see such an > option in apt-get, or elsewhere (so far). apt-get autoclean, yes, as recommended by others in the thread > > Yeah. But the detailed docs for aptitude are a whole lot more interesting > and more detailed/explicit. > > > If anyone test drives those for the first time, especially without > > fully understanding what the notes are saying the options do, PLEASE > > make sure to back up your system first. Been there, done that without > > backing up in the past. It's not pretty.. > > > > Cindy :) > > From what I understand I should be able to get the software to show me what > it's planning on doing before it actually goes ahead and does it. :-) > Several of these also have --dry-run options or similar. The quicker you can get yourself to 11, the happier you may well be :) All the very 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 >
