Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Andreas Vinsander]

George Roberts wrote:
Is there a more reasonable/saner way to maintain my system.
I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
has downloaded, or temp files (other than the tmp directory) that could 
be safely flushed.

You might wanna take a look at tmpwatch (emerge -uDav --newuse tmpwatch) 
which requires you to have a cron daemon (vixie-cron is a good choice).

And if you do maybe add something like this
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="$(/usr/bin/portageq envvar PORTAGE_TMPDIR)/portage"
PORTAGE_LOGDIR="$(/usr/bin/portageq envvar PORT_LOGDIR)"
if [[ -d ${PORTAGE_TMPDIR:-/var/tmp/portage} ]]; then
  ${TMPWATCH} --mtime --all 336 ${PORTAGE_TMPDIR:-/var/tmp/portage}
fi
if [[ -d ${PORTAGE_LOGDIR:-/var/log/portage} ]]; then
  ${TMPWATCH} --mtime --all 336 ${PORTAGE_LOGDIR:-/var/log/portage}
fi
or something similar to the end of /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch
It will remove anything that haven't been modified for 14 days from some 
common places...
Look through the other commented options found in that file as well.
If the filesystem where your distfiles is situated is mounted without 
'noatime' then consider cleaning that as well...

/Andreas
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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[George Roberts]

Thanks again to all that have helped me.
After following your instructions I have dropped from over 6 gigs down 
to 3.8 gigs, which seems to be a  more reasonable figure to me.
I am on a cable connection so re-downloading is not a major issue with me. 
My distfiles had grown to 1.2 gigs, and yes also there were some failed 
emerge packages.
Backing up to cds is always a good idea.
This sets my deranged mind to wondering, is there a howto setup for how 
to screw up my system and bring it back to the stable point simply 
working from backups?

W.Kenworthy wrote:
To add to this, many updates are released as a patch to the existing
source, so again, an upgrade without the source will require it to be
downloaded - again.
There are utilities (search the forums) that will clean distfiles,
limiting it to only the installed sources - these usually work well.
However, unless space is critical I would leave them there.  Unless you
are on a low cost, mega fast link having the sources already available
speeds things up a lot.
Alternatives are burn them to cdrom, put them on a remote nfs mount etc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
BillK
On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 23:11 +0100, Holly Bostick wrote:
 

George Roberts wrote:
   

I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
has downloaded
 

/usr/portage/distfiles. This can always be safely deleted, although 
doing so will mean that you will have to re-download the source files if 
you ever need to reinstall any of the programs you have currently installed.

   


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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[W.Kenworthy]

To add to this, many updates are released as a patch to the existing
source, so again, an upgrade without the source will require it to be
downloaded - again.

There are utilities (search the forums) that will clean distfiles,
limiting it to only the installed sources - these usually work well.

However, unless space is critical I would leave them there.  Unless you
are on a low cost, mega fast link having the sources already available
speeds things up a lot.

Alternatives are burn them to cdrom, put them on a remote nfs mount etc.

BillK


On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 23:11 +0100, Holly Bostick wrote:
> George Roberts wrote:
> > I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
> > has downloaded
> 
> /usr/portage/distfiles. This can always be safely deleted, although 
> doing so will mean that you will have to re-download the source files if 
> you ever need to reinstall any of the programs you have currently installed.
> 


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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[George Roberts]

Holly Bostick wrote:
George Roberts wrote:
Firstly let me thank everbody for their responses.
By "snapshot" (please excuse me, I am a noobie), do you mean have the 
system regenerate a "snapshot" of where the system is today.  So that 
if I were to a "merge --newuse world", only the active packages in 
use as of today would be rebuilt.  Or I just totally lost somewhere 
out in left field?

No, what is meant is a Portage snapshot, such as the one used when 
installing without a network connection.

Quote:
Installing a Portage Snapshot and Source Code from LiveCD
There is a Portage snapshot available on the Universal LiveCDs. Since 
you are reading this, we can safely assume you are using such a 
LiveCD. To install this snapshot, take a look inside 
/mnt/cdrom/snapshots/ to see what snapshot we have available:

/endquote
Snapshots can also be downloaded from the Internet, for example from
ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/pub/linux/gentoo/snapshots/
So basically, if you just wipe the Portage directory, a snapshot 
allows you to start "clean", if you would find that useful. Many of us 
find it sufficient to just delete the contents of 
/usr/portage/distfiles. Ebuilds themselves don't take up much space.

HTH,
Holly
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Oh ok, got it now.  Thanks.  Sometimes I forget the KISS principle.
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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Nick Rout]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:32:29 -0700
George Roberts wrote:

> Firstly let me thank everbody for their responses.
> 
> By "snapshot" (please excuse me, I am a noobie), do you mean have the 
> system regenerate a "snapshot" of where the system is today. 

no a snapshot is a tarball of the /usr/portage directory made at a
certain point in time, and not including the distfiles or packages
subdirectories.

What the poster was saying was that if you want to completely clean out
/usr/portage, then delete it and install a (recent) snapshot, then you
have what portage provides and only what portage provides.

I am not sure I agree that that is a good idea, just trying to explain
what was posted earlier.


> So that if 
> I were to a "merge --newuse world", only the active packages in use as 
> of today would be rebuilt.  Or I just totally lost somewhere out in left 
> field?
> 
> Dave Nebinger wrote:
> 
> >To 'clean' your /usr/portage directory you could try removing the whole
> >thing then drop a snapshot in place.
> >  
> >
> 
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-- 
Nick Rout
Barrister & Solicitor
Christchurch

<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Holly Bostick]

George Roberts wrote:
Firstly let me thank everbody for their responses.
By "snapshot" (please excuse me, I am a noobie), do you mean have the 
system regenerate a "snapshot" of where the system is today.  So that if 
I were to a "merge --newuse world", only the active packages in use as 
of today would be rebuilt.  Or I just totally lost somewhere out in left 
field?

No, what is meant is a Portage snapshot, such as the one used when 
installing without a network connection.

Quote:
Installing a Portage Snapshot and Source Code from LiveCD
There is a Portage snapshot available on the Universal LiveCDs. Since 
you are reading this, we can safely assume you are using such a LiveCD. 
To install this snapshot, take a look inside /mnt/cdrom/snapshots/ to 
see what snapshot we have available:

/endquote
Snapshots can also be downloaded from the Internet, for example from
ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/pub/linux/gentoo/snapshots/
So basically, if you just wipe the Portage directory, a snapshot allows 
you to start "clean", if you would find that useful. Many of us find it 
sufficient to just delete the contents of /usr/portage/distfiles. 
Ebuilds themselves don't take up much space.

HTH,
Holly
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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[George Roberts]

Firstly let me thank everbody for their responses.
By "snapshot" (please excuse me, I am a noobie), do you mean have the 
system regenerate a "snapshot" of where the system is today.  So that if 
I were to a "merge --newuse world", only the active packages in use as 
of today would be rebuilt.  Or I just totally lost somewhere out in left 
field?

Dave Nebinger wrote:
To 'clean' your /usr/portage directory you could try removing the whole
thing then drop a snapshot in place.
 

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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Marc Ballarin]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:04:16 -0700
George Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Is there a more reasonable/saner way to maintain my system.
> I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
> has downloaded, or temp files (other than the tmp directory) that could 
> be safely flushed.

Hi,

portage/distfiles contains downloaded sources and can grow quite large
over time. If you have a fast internet connection you can safely delete
it.

portage/packages contains binary packages that are created when using the
-b or -B options to emerge, or if you have set FEATURES="buildpkg" in
make.conf. You can delete this as well.

/var/tmp/portage contains temp files while building. Those files can be
left behind if emerge fails or is interrupted. You can delete it as long
as emerge is not running.

Regards
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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Holly Bostick]

George Roberts wrote:
I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
has downloaded
/usr/portage/distfiles. This can always be safely deleted, although 
doing so will mean that you will have to re-download the source files if 
you ever need to reinstall any of the programs you have currently installed.

 or temp files (other than the tmp directory) that could 
be safely flushed.
The temp files for failed emerges are found in (I believe) 
/var/tmp/portage/package_name. These can also be deleted (the temp files 
are deleted automatically when the emerge succeeds, and if the emerge 
has failed, the temp files aren't going to help you much anyway), and 
can get pretty big if you failed to compile OO.o, for example.

Hope this helps.
Holly
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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Nick Rout]

everything inside /var/tmp/portage can be deleted. this is the area
where portage builds packages. if everything sompletes cleanly there is
usually not too much cruft here, but if an ebuild craps out it can leave
a lot of stuff. PS don't do this in the middle of an active ebuild, it
will well and truly stop the operation!

/usr/portage/distfiles is the source files that you have downloaded. For 
packages that have been superceded by a new version you can definitely
delete the source file.
 
For current packages there is no difficulty deleting the source package, but if 
you want to rebuild it you will need to download it again. you
may want to rebuild it for any number of reasons, eg if there is an
updated ebuild of the same version (eg package-1.4 gets bumped to
package-1.4-r1) or if you change your USE flags.

If you search the forums there are scripts to intelligently delete older stuff 
from /usr/portage/distfiles

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:04:16 -0700
George Roberts wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> I got my Gentoo system finished a couple weeks ago and since that time 
> it has grown to over 6 gigs.
> I found FINDCRUFT from the forum: 
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=254197&highlight=findcruft.
> When I run the script, it outputs a file that is 4.4 megs in size.  Most 
> of which points to my Portage directory.  After about an hour of 
> clicking and deleting, I checked the size of the Portage directory it is 
> now down 98183 items, totalling 76.7 MB.  At this point I came to the 
> realization that this is not what I bought a computer to spend my time 
> doing.
> 
> Is there a more reasonable/saner way to maintain my system.
> I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it 
> has downloaded, or temp files (other than the tmp directory) that could 
> be safely flushed.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> George
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Barrister & Solicitor
Christchurch

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RE: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Dave Nebinger]

You can safely drop /var/tmp/portage to reclaim a lot of space.
/usr/portage will typically contain the distribution files for those pieces
that you've emerged; you can remove these but re-emerging/updating would
download them again.

To 'clean' your /usr/portage directory you could try removing the whole
thing then drop a snapshot in place.

I keep my distribution files in an alternate location (my local ftp space
for other gentoo boxes on the internal network to retrieve from), but "du -h
/usr/portage" still reports that I'm using 1.5 Gig.  To me this is a small
price to pay, especially since disk space is so darn cheap to begin with.



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Re: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

[Qian Qiao]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:04:16 -0700, George Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi all.
> 
> I got my Gentoo system finished a couple weeks ago and since that time
> it has grown to over 6 gigs.
> I found FINDCRUFT from the forum:
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=254197&highlight=findcruft.
> When I run the script, it outputs a file that is 4.4 megs in size.  Most
> of which points to my Portage directory.  After about an hour of
> clicking and deleting, I checked the size of the Portage directory it is
> now down 98183 items, totalling 76.7 MB.  At this point I came to the
> realization that this is not what I bought a computer to spend my time
> doing.
> 
> Is there a more reasonable/saner way to maintain my system.
> I am wondering is there any places where Portage stashes files that it
> has downloaded, or temp files (other than the tmp directory) that could
> be safely flushed.

Your system's portage distfile dir and portages work dir can be safely deleted.

HTH.

-- Joe

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Sometimes money can't even buy a gun...
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