freeing up space on / (root partition), esp /var

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TomRoche

freeing up space on / (root partition), esp /var

Post by TomRoche »

How could I {best, most safely} free up space in my root partition? Why I ask:

I currently have 2 boxes running LMDE, both with only hard/physical partitions (setup with gparted). To avoid the problems related below, I intend to install LVM (as described here) ASAP, but probably won't be able to do that until the winter holidays. Meanwhile, I'm trying to fix some problems on these boxes:
  • production box: for everyday work, runs UP4. LMDE is the only installed OS. Has 4 partitions: swap, /, /boot, /home
  • experimentation box: newer/faster than the production box, but is not quite setup (more below). Has 7 partitions: swap, /, /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, /var
Soon after Update Pack 5 arrived, I tried to install UP5 on the experimentation box, but the install failed when its /var partition totally filled. I've been busy, so I've delayed trying to fix that :-(

However now my production box is giving me warnings about low free space on /. The experimentation box has a separate /var partition, but the production box has everything except /boot and /home (and swap) on the root partition, which I see has

Code: Select all

me@it:~$ df -h /
Filesystem                                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/disk/by-uuid/5821418b-0f83-43b0-99f2-77964602ef6b   19G   17G  719M  97% /
me@it:~$ find / -maxdepth 1 -type d | grep -ve '/$' | grep -ve '/boot\|/home\|/proc\|/run' | sort | xargs -i du -hs {}/ 2> /dev/null
7.2M    /bin/
8.0K    /debian/
0       /dev/
35M     /etc/
550M    /lib/
5.2M    /lib32/
4.0K    /lib64/
16K     /lost+found/
8.0K    /media/
4.0K    /mnt/
1.4G    /opt/
4.0K    /.pulse/
4.0K    /root/
9.3M    /sbin/
4.0K    /selinux/
4.0K    /srv/
0       /sys/
536K    /tmp/
7.6G    /usr/
7.1G    /var/
me@it:~$ find /var -maxdepth 1 -type d | grep -ve '/var$' | sort | xargs -i du -hs {}/ 2> /dev/null
13M	/var/backups/
6.5G	/var/cache/
255M	/var/lib/
4.0K	/var/local/
38M	/var/log/
80K	/var/mail/
4.0K	/var/opt/
56K	/var/spool/
273M	/var/tmp/
I'd like to avoid deleting anything from /usr if possible, since I'm trying to avoid problems on the production system. By contrast, I would like to know how to safely cleanup /var (and especially /var/cache, which is a major space consumer), since these are also problematic on my experimentation box.

So what could I probably remove most safely, and how?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
GeneBenson
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Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:55 pm

Re: freeing up space on / (root partition), esp /var

Post by GeneBenson »

Hi TomRoche,

apt-get clean or apt-get autoclean (run in a terminal as root) are what you are looking for. In a terminal enter: man apt-get
and read the explanation for apt-get clean and apt-get autoclean.

Hope this helps. :wink:
TomRoche

Re: freeing up space on / (root partition), esp /var

Post by TomRoche »

GeneBenson wrote:apt-get clean or apt-get autoclean

Code: Select all

me@it:~$ info aptitude # and search for 'autoclean'
> clean
>     Removes all previously downloaded .deb files from the package cache
>     directory (usually /var/cache/apt/archives).

> autoclean
>     Removes any cached packages which can no longer be downloaded. This
>     allows you to prevent a cache from growing out of control over time
>     without completely emptying it.
me@it:~$ date ; find /var -maxdepth 1 -type d | grep -ve '/var$' | sort | xargs -i du -hs {}/ 2> /dev/null
> Tue Nov 13 19:30:37 EST 2012
> 13M     /var/backups/
> 6.5G    /var/cache/
> 255M    /var/lib/
> 4.0K    /var/local/
> 38M     /var/log/
> 80K     /var/mail/
> 4.0K    /var/opt/
> 56K     /var/spool/
> 273M    /var/tmp/
me@it:~$ date ; sudo aptitude autoclean
> Tue Nov 13 19:33:15 EST 2012
...
> Freed 5,271 MB of disk space
me@it:~$ date ; find /var -maxdepth 1 -type d | grep -ve '/var$' | sort | xargs -i du -hs {}/ 2> /dev/null
> Tue Nov 13 19:33:25 EST 2012
> 13M     /var/backups/
> 1.6G    /var/cache/
...
I bow in your general direction.
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