Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB

[mediclaser]

I have been setting up my root partition sizes to at least 120 GB, because I simply presumed those advising no more than 20 GB only have very few software installations in their systems. That is until one post in the forum threads caught my attention: "If you split system and data, then 100 GB for root is excessive.."

Then it suddenly hit me...that was exactly the thing I've been missing. Every time I install a software, I leave it to decide where it saves its data. Had I known to do it right early on, I would have had 30 distros in multi-boot setup on my test machine (instead of just 5 distros).

My question is: Is there any Linux software which does not allow moving its default data directory somewhere else?

[gm10]

The context in which I made that statement that you quoted was that a separate partition was mounted at /home. Your user folder is located in /home and thus what I assume you mean with the "default data directory".

[mediclaser]

The context in which I made that statement that you quoted was that a separate partition was mounted at /home. Your user folder is located in /home and thus what I assume you mean with the "default data directory".

I mean other directories outside /home. For example, Apache and MariaDB store their data inside /var by default. I could just move them somewhere in the /home folder.

[JeremyB]

It depends on whether you have separate boot and home partitions. My LM 19 install only has a root partition and its total size is about 30 GB now

[Flemur]

My two cents -

/home is a directory under "/" - and part of that OS, really - and "data" is stored somewhere else.

/home has settings for programs which make up the OS in "/". These settings won't necessarily work 100% correctly, or at all, with other OSs and/or desktops.

"data" = files which are independent of the OS - music, movies, etc, and aren't on the same partition as the OS. They work with any OS or desktop. The data is on a separate partition from "/", mounted to /data or wherever, /mnt/DATA...

And then "/" doesn't generally need more than 20GB.

[mediclaser]

I should have probably made it clear that my data partition is separate from the root partitions. I also loosely referred to the same data partition as /home. My apologies for the inaccurate description.

[redlined]

hi mediclaser and all!

This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)

and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.

Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet

[JerryF]

...
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.

Mine is at 11.8 and has been for quite some time.

Click to enlarge

[mediclaser]

hi mediclaser and all!

This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)

and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.

Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet

I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.

[redlined]

...
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.

Mine is at 11.8 and has been for quite some time.
Shutter_020.jpg

it is weird, for sure and I don't know how it bloats like that but this laptop was LM19 fresh installed to a new ssd over the past couple weeks, SO's laptop has gone from 18.3 in June thru upgrade process to LM19 last month and both laptops are at 13.6GB used for root (I set hers up so having 13 of 50GB used for root look similar at this point is expected). I need to break open some man pages and see if I can find some offending space use, how else to account for "a couple of Gigs" more on new installs versus folks with systems been around for quite some time?

[redlined]

I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.

now 22GB sounds more my style!
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?

[mediclaser]

I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.

now 22GB sounds more my style!
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?

Correct.

[redlined]

I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.

now 22GB sounds more my style!
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?

Correct.

awesome!
(although I do enjoy being weird, I don't think if its just two of us that has category changed to a new norm

[mediclaser]

Just in case a beginner (like me) stumbles across this thread, the main idea is to keep your root partition from growing fast if you decide to do separate root and data partitions. And a cool way to accomplish this to switch or move the default "data" directory of your apps to the data partition.

Example of the apps are:

* Timeshift -- I know in Mint 19, it saves the snapshots in the root partition if you do not specify a different location.
* Apache web server -- Your web files can grow big when your images or other big files reside in the "www" folder inside /var
* MySQL/MariaDB -- Databases I create can grow pretty quick, especially when I store PDF and images in binary fields.

[Flemur]

and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally

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df
Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1       20107524  4327644  14735420  23% / <Mint 19>
/dev/sda6      137034856 46277696  83962592  36% /mnt/DATA
/dev/sda7       25800208  4331836  20134716  18% /mnt/ <lubuntu18>
/dev/sda2       19946764  4410544  14499932  24% /mnt/ <Mint18.3>

[JerryF]

it is weird, for sure and I don't know how it bloats like that but this laptop was LM19 fresh installed to a new ssd over the past couple weeks, SO's laptop has gone from 18.3 in June thru upgrade process to LM19 last month and both laptops are at 13.6GB used for root (I set hers up so having 13 of 50GB used for root look similar at this point is expected). I need to break open some man pages and see if I can find some offending space use, how else to account for "a couple of Gigs" more on new installs versus folks with systems been around for quite some time?

Older kernels should be removed. I keep 3 and rotate them.

For example:

4.15.0-34
4.15.0-36
4.15.0-38

then,when 4.15.0-39 comes through, I apply it, reboot, and work with that kernel. After a couple of weeks if things run smoothly, I then remove the oldest kernel, 4.15.0-34

[Pierre]

yet I've always set my PCs to have:
- / root = 10Gb
- /swap = 1 -2 Gb
- /home = rest of drive.

and then found that LM19 was getting too fat for a 10Gb / root
thus it's now at 15Gb in size & seems to be holding at 13,5Gb in used area ATM.

if you did keep the standard install of / root only & the /home as a sub-directory of that,
then you wouldn't necessary need a huge / root partition - maybe 50 - 100Gb or so.

[gm10]

This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)

and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.

Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet

I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.

If you've got /home as a separate partition and no /swapfile then all that needs to be in / root is the system itself plus whichever packages you are installing, plus system data. Unless you are installing a huge amount of applications and/or are running some servers with their large data files in / root as someone mentioned above, then there is no reason for your system to be that large. For 22 GB I would actually expect something like /timeshift snapshots in root, which does, of course, double your disk space usage.

Now unfortunately the Mint system is very messy, none of the tools clean up after themselves. I tried to get some automatic maintenance squeezed into 19.1 but seems you'll only get that for 19.2, if at all.

But here's a little experiment for you, let's make some room on your / root, see how much we'll free up:

First let's keep track of where we're at:

Code: Select all

BEFORE=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')

Now let's remove leftover packages and data

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apt clean
apt autoremove --purge -y $(dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | awk '{print $2}')

and leftover kernels (yes, this is one command line):

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dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}\n' 'linux-image-[^g]*'|sort -u|sed -e "/^$/d;s/\~[^~]*$//;s/\.[^.]*$//;/$(uname -r|sed 's/-generic\|-lowlatency//')/d;s/.*/linux-*-&*/"|tr '\n' ' '|xargs -r sudo apt-get remove --purge -y

If you don't need localization data for currently not configured locales also run this (this will still probably generate a lot of locales you don't actually need, you may want to look into trimming down your locale configuration later on):

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sudo rm -rfv /usr/lib/locale/*
sudo locale-gen --purge

On Mint 18 you will want to append --no-archive to that last command line. Further control about localization data incl. automated removal can be had with scripts like the package localepurge, check that out later if you're interested.

If you're one of those who like to run their file browser or worse as root, then you've probably got disk space to recover there as well (deleting to Trash as root is a classic, since you cannot clear it via the GUI):

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sudo rm -rfv /root/.local/share/Trash
sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache

Finally, let's check the result:

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AFTER=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
echo "/ usage was $BEFORE, is now $AFTER"

If that didn't trop your usage significantly I'd be surprised, but for an overview of where your disk is being used, do run this:

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sudo du / -hxd 1 -t 100M

(edit: typo fixed, thx redlined)

[redlined]

most excellent list of commands gm10, thanks for that (definitely a bookmarked thread:). (one typo to fix, move dash to right, change sudo rm- rfv /root/.cache to read sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache

also, i had not come across command df before Flemur I've adeded results from that and gm10s group of commands below.

JerryF I've trimmed old kernels on my old laptop but this one is install less than two weeks. I did run command to remove them though.

Pierre, thanks for sharing your experience with 19 taking so much more, this was the weird part for me as I started this past Spring on LM18.3 and drive use for root go to 8GB quickly, but the bump to 13GB with LM19 was surprising and wasn't sure how to read linux veterans maintaining root under 10GB.

Like mediclaser mentions I have been working to keep everything out of root partition (home, personal files, timeshift backups, etc) that I could.

anyways, my mess

Code: Select all

anyuser@f023:~$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             3998140        0   3998140   0% /dev
tmpfs             806076     1412    804664   1% /run
/dev/sda3       48952100 12361448  34074268  27% /
tmpfs            4030368    33612   3996756   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120        4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4030368        0   4030368   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            4030368      400   4029968   1% /tmp
/dev/sda2         999320   154020    776488  17% /boot
/dev/sda5      294243128  8742416 270484316   4% /home
/dev/sda6      364220008 29807464 317553168   9% /mnt/data
tmpfs             806072       52    806020   1% /run/user/1000
anyuser@f023:~$ BEFORE=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
anyuser@f023:~$ apt clean
[sudo] password for anyuser: 
anyuser@f023:~$ apt autoremove --purge -y $(dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | awk '{print $2}')
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  firejail-profiles* fonts-texgyre* libenet7*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 341022 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for libenet7:amd64 (1.3.12+ds-2) ...
Purging configuration files for fonts-texgyre (20160520-1) ...
Purging configuration files for firejail-profiles (0.9.52-2) ...
anyuser@f023:~$ dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}\n' 'linux-image-[^g]*'|sort -u|sed -e '/^$/d' -e 's/\~[^~]*$//' -e 's/\.[^.]*$//' -e "/$(uname -r|sed 's/-generic\|-lowlatency//')/d" -e 's/.*/linux-*-&*/'|tr '\n' ' '|xargs -pr sudo apt-get remove --purge -y
sudo apt-get remove --purge -y linux-*-4.15.0-20* ?...
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /usr/lib/locale/*
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_PAPER'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_TIME'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_NUMERIC'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_NAME'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_TELEPHONE'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_ADDRESS'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MEASUREMENT'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MONETARY'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_IDENTIFICATION'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/SYS_LC_MESSAGES'
removed directory '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_CTYPE'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_COLLATE'
removed directory '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive'
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo locale-gen --purge
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
  en_AG.UTF-8... done
  en_AU.UTF-8... done
  en_BW.UTF-8... done
  en_CA.UTF-8... done
  en_DK.UTF-8... done
  en_GB.UTF-8... done
  en_HK.UTF-8... done
  en_IE.UTF-8... done
  en_IL.UTF-8... done
  en_IN.UTF-8... done
  en_NG.UTF-8... done
  en_NZ.UTF-8... done
  en_PH.UTF-8... done
  en_SG.UTF-8... done
  en_US.UTF-8... done
  en_ZA.UTF-8... done
  en_ZM.UTF-8... done
  en_ZW.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /root/.local/share/Trash
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm- rfv /root/.cache
sudo: rm-: command not found
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/ff169c4ac6079d5e0e12dc32ed07906a.png'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/94347497fef358e3e8cb7743ba55cf14.png'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/73bfc520ff78e7e0cf8f858d61c9af5a.png'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/ae15fe71f3c5fb928a58f630c5940824.png'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails'
removed '/root/.cache/dconf/user'
removed directory '/root/.cache/dconf'
removed '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13/salt'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13/Blobs'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py'
removed '/root/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry.x86_64.bin'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gstreamer-1.0'
removed directory '/root/.cache'
anyuser@f023:~$ AFTER=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
anyuser@f023:~$ echo "/ usage was $BEFORE, is now $AFTER"
/ usage was 12G, is now 12G
anyuser@f023:~$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             3998140        0   3998140   0% /dev
tmpfs             806076     1412    804664   1% /run
/dev/sda3       48952100 12354748  34080968  27% /
tmpfs            4030368    33300   3997068   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120        4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4030368        0   4030368   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs            4030368      400   4029968   1% /tmp
/dev/sda2         999320   154020    776488  17% /boot
/dev/sda5      294243128  8742432 270484300   4% /home
/dev/sda6      364220008 29807464 317553168   9% /mnt/data
tmpfs             806072       52    806020   1% /run/user/1000
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo du / -hxd 1 -t 100M
793M	/lib
5.8G	/usr
149M	/opt
5.0G	/var
12G	/
anyuser@f023:~$ inxi -Fxzd
System:    Host: f023 Kernel: 4.15.0-39-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 15 Notebook PC v: 0973100003405F00000620180 serial: N/A
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 233F v: 06.16 serial: N/A
           UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: F.23 date: 08/05/2015
Battery    BAT0: charge: 26.3 Wh 100.0% condition: 26.3/26.3 Wh (100%)
           model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Full
CPU:       Quad core Intel Celeron N2920 (-MCP-) 
           arch: Silvermont rev.3 cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 14929
           clock speeds: max: 1999 MHz 1: 1387 MHz 2: 1317 MHz 3: 933 MHz
           4: 933 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail
           version: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Def. Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-39-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter
           driver: rtl8188ee port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCIE Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 1000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (6.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_860 size: 1000.2GB temp: 0C
           Optical-1: /dev/sr0 model: hp DVDRW  DU8A5SHL
           rev: ZH63 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
           Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
           audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition: ID-1: / size: 47G used: 12G (27%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
           ID-2: /boot size: 976M used: 151M (17%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: /home size: 281G used: 8.4G (4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 8.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
           fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 214 Uptime: 1 day Memory: 3085.8/7871.8MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56 
anyuser@f023:~$ 

[JerryF]

One place I'd check is /var/log

Mine is 2 GB full.