cleaning up. Removing packages that are unnecessary.

microsoft/linux · 10-19-2005, 11:42 PM

Would some one here take the time out of their busy schedule to help me go through and decide what packages I need and which ones I don't? I've got abou 3.5GB of my 5GB used, and I'd like to clear it some more. I have KDE installed(which may be the reason I have such a big space taken up). If anyone know's how to list all the packages currently installed, I'll do that and post it here. I know I know, I'm being lazy. But I'm not...I'm just not sure what I need and what I don't.

makuyl · 10-20-2005, 02:13 AM

You can list installed packages by size with:
dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size} ${Package}\n' | sort -n

Some stuff to remove would be localisation files like the i18n packages. Also apt-get install localepurge and deborphan. It's a bit difficult for others to say which packages you don't need

stimpsonjcat · 10-20-2005, 04:40 AM

apt-get autoclean
or
apt-get clean

this will not uninstall packages you don't need, but it will clear a lot of disk space.

man apt-get

RanDrake10 · 10-20-2005, 07:02 AM

Another good thing for making space is,
apt-get install localepurge
localepurge
This will remove all non locale man pages.

microsoft/linux · 10-20-2005, 08:59 AM

thank you. Is it probable that all the downloaded packages(apt-get clean will remove them) is what are taking up most of the space? I'd forgotten that installing over the network causes this. I installed my system, and the first set of packages via CD, and it doesn't copy the packages off of the CD. Thanks again

nx5000 · 10-20-2005, 10:02 AM

I also use deborphan and cruft.

stimpsonjcat · 10-20-2005, 10:35 AM

the downloaded packages are stored in /var/cache/apt/archives
the size of that directory is about what you can expect to be freed by apt-get clean.