Removing duplicate files

suramya · 06-01-2022, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo2

Debian 11 is stable, not unstable. Debian unstable does not have a version number. How did you install fslint?

Evo2.

Sorry, that was a typo. I am on Debian Unstable. I installed fslint using the following command:

Code:

apt-get install fslint

evo2 · 06-01-2022, 08:53 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by suramya

Sorry, that was a typo. I am on Debian Unstable. I installed fslint using the following command:

Code:

apt-get install fslint

Ok, but it hasn't been in Debian since Debian 10 (now oldstable). I guess you must have old or third party repositories configured. The output of the following should explain it:

Code:

apt-cache policy fslint

Cheers,

Evo2.

pan64 · 06-02-2022, 12:50 AM

There is an interesting alternative, do not remove the duplicates, but hard link to each other. Useful if you don't know which one is important or you need them in every directory. Works only on a single filesystem.

suramya · 06-02-2022, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo2

Hi,

Ok, but it hasn't been in Debian since Debian 10 (now oldstable). I guess you must have old or third party repositories configured. The output of the following should explain it:

Code:

apt-cache policy fslint

Cheers,

Evo2.

Interesting. I don't think I have it configured for old repositories. Below is what my sources.list has along with the result from the command you recommended:

Code:

root@StarKnight:~# apt-cache policy fslint
fslint:
  Installed: 2.46-1
  Candidate: 2.46-1
  Version table:
 *** 2.46-1 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
root@StarKnight:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list
# Debian packages for unstable
#deb http://mirror.0x.sg/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
root@StarKnight:~#

I first installed it back in 2014 and have never removed it after that. But have been constantly upgrading the system. I think that is why I still have the package even though it is no longer available in the repository.

Code:

root@StarKnight:/etc/apt/sources.list.d# apt-cache showpkg  fslint
Package: fslint
Versions: 
2.46-1 (/var/lib/dpkg/status)
 Description Language: 
                 File: /var/lib/dpkg/status
                  MD5: 4b58d63667576a6e98df13a69973c798


Reverse Depends: 
  unburden-home-dir,fslint
Dependencies: 
2.46-1 - findutils (2 4.1.1) python (2 2.6) python-glade2 (0 (null)) python-gtk2 (2 2.4) 
Provides: 
2.46-1 - 
Reverse Provides:

This should have shown me the repository path and other details about the package and from where it was installed. So it looks like it is no longer there.

evo2 · 06-02-2022, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suramya

This should have shown me the repository path and other details about the package and from where it was installed. So it looks like it is no longer there.

Yeah, seems you installed it before it was booted from Debian :-)

If you still have that on your system, you've probably got a bunch of other old, obsolete stuff lurking around. Might want to look into cleaning it up.

Cheers,

Evo2.

suramya · 06-02-2022, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo2

Yeah, seems you installed it before it was booted from Debian :-)

If you still have that on your system, you've probably got a bunch of other old, obsolete stuff lurking around. Might want to look into cleaning it up.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Yup. That sounds like a smart idea. Any suggestions on how to find the old stuff? One option I can think of is to get a list of all the packages installed and run the apt-cache showpkg command on each of them. If the result is blank for the repository location etc then it would indicate an obsolete package. Is there a better/simpler way to do this?

evo2 · 06-02-2022, 08:29 PM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by suramya

Yup. That sounds like a smart idea. Any suggestions on how to find the old stuff? One option I can think of is to get a list of all the packages installed and run the apt-cache showpkg command on each of them. If the result is blank for the repository location etc then it would indicate an obsolete package. Is there a better/simpler way to do this?

The Debian release notes has a section on this, since they recommend removing such packages before upgrading from one version of Debian to the next. Eg have a look at:

https://www.debian.org/releases/bull...#system-status

Cheers,

Evo2.

naps · 06-03-2022, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suramya

Another option is to use fslint. It is a fantastic program that finds duplicates and allows you to delete/rename them if required. It has both GUI and command line modes but I have only used the GUI mode

Going down the route of apps I have moved to czkawka; an online search takes you to Polish websites but the homepage is https://GitHub.com/qarmin/czkawka . The latest release of 24th April has a feature to find files with the wrong extension. One feature came out after I installed it allows you to choose a folder as containing the originals so they don’t get deleted.
It can be installed in Debian although I don’t think it is in their repositories.

suramya · 06-03-2022, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo2

Hi,

The Debian release notes has a section on this, since they recommend removing such packages before upgrading from one version of Debian to the next. Eg have a look at:

https://www.debian.org/releases/bull...#system-status

Cheers,

Evo2.

Cool, thanks. This is very useful.
Will try this out once I have some time and a lot of sleep to ensure I don't remove stuff that I might need.