(SOLVED) Re: Cleaning out an archive ?

NotSo · Post by **NotSo** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:50 pm

Not sure if I have the right section here.
I have been following and reading about the Mint 19 release in this forum, and saw this bit of info but I am not sure how to clean out the archive.

How much stuff is accumulating in /var/cache/apt/archives ? Mine needs cleaning up again. Got rid of about 4 or 5 GB last clear out.

I checked mine and I have over 6 GB

Website · Post by **Moem** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:53 pm

Mod note:
Moved this out of the Chat section because it's clearly a support question.

NotSo · Post by **NotSo** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 6:40 pm

I just right clicked in the folder and selected "Open as root", my password, and deleted the files.

Post by **karlchen** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:02 pm

The right manual way of doing so, however, would have been

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get clean

NotSo · Post by **NotSo** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:09 pm

Thank you karlchen for your reply.

Would I open the folder in the terminal and enter the command? I tried it and it left a "lock" file there, is that right?

Just trying to learn some terminal stuff

I keep little bits of info like that in a text file for reference later.

Post by **karlchen** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:36 pm

Hello, NotSo.

You do not have to change to /var/cache/apt/archives, before executing sudo apt-get clean. apt-get knows its directory structure.
It is the intended behaviour of sudo apt-get clean that it clears everything from /var/cache/apt/archives except
+ the lock file
+ the sub-directory /var/cache/apt/archives/partial.

Regards,
Karl

NotSo · Post by **NotSo** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:56 pm

Thank you so much Karl, my learning curve is growing nicely with interesting info like that.

Have a good day

Post by **karlchen** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:34 am

Good morning, NotSo.

A note on automatic cleanup of the apt cache:

On Ubuntu /var/cache/apt/archives will be cleaned automatically, depending on the rules defined in the apt config file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20archive.
The default (?) settings seem to be to clean anything from /var/cache/apt/archives which has been present there for more than 30 days and to keep the total size of cached files below 500 MB.
This has worked nicely so far on all of my Ubuntus, including Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04.

As Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, the same automatic housekeeping has worked fine and still works fine on Linux Mint here up to version 17.x.
On Mint 18.1, however, for some reason or just by accident this automatic housekeeping seems to be disabled by default.
At least here one my Mint 18.1 (2 systems), I had to enable it myself.
Ever since, on Mint 18.1, too, apt makes sure that /var/cache/apt/archives will not keep on growing indefinitely, but that it gets cut down to below 500 MB in a timely fashion.

Regards,
Karl

NotSo · Post by **NotSo** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 4:45 pm

The file below does not exist in the folder ... hhhmmm. That's why I suppose that the archive folder had over 6GB of stuff in it. Never mind, Mint 19 is just around the corner.

depending on the rules defined in the apt config file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20archive

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