My harddrive ran out of space..

Dark_Hunter · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 3:59 pm Post subject:

delete files in /usr/portage/distfile

teknik0s · n00b Joined: 26 May 2003 Posts: 72 Location: Texas

what are all of those ? Do i need them to unmerge or no?

hensan · l33t Joined: 26 Jun 2003 Posts: 868 Location: Sweden

You can safely remove the whole distfiles dir, after a package is installed the distfiles are only useful if you want to re-emerge the package or upgrade to a new -r* version without having to re-download the sources.

teknik0s · n00b Joined: 26 May 2003 Posts: 72 Location: Texas

ok now i have 1.5GB used (that took off 200mb) hey that is good, but is there any way to get more space?

duff · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 466 Location: Clemson, SC

/var/tmp/portage will be pretty big if you've had a lot of failed/cancled emerges.

klac · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 32 Location: Winnipeg, MB

You can probably remove most of the contents of /var/tmp safely. Also, check the sizes in /var/log; if you're not planning to use the logs, you can probably get rid of some of the older ones.

If you have a spare HD you can borrow from another system, you can use the Hard Disk Upgrade mini-howto to move data back and forth between partitions. However, be sure to have a backup, and to do all the optional parts (ie comparing the source and destination folders) - I killed my installation yesterday by failing to follow all the directions :oops:

_________________
He that breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- Gandalf the Grey

klac · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 32 Location: Winnipeg, MB

You can probably remove most of the contents of /var/tmp safely. Also, check the sizes in /var/log; if you're not planning to use the logs, you can probably get rid of some of the older ones.

If you have a spare HD you can borrow from another system, you can use the Hard Disk Upgrade mini-howto to move data back and forth between partitions. However, be sure to have a backup, and to do all the optional parts (ie comparing the source and destination folders) - I killed my installation yesterday by failing to follow all the directions :oops:

_________________
He that breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- Gandalf the Grey

Lycander · Guru Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 468

Negative on deleting random files in /var/tmp. I read in another thread about recovering HD space and someone pointed out that XFree uses /var/temp to cache data and deleting files improperly may cause problems with XFree.

Between /var/tmp/portage and /usr/portage/distfiles you can recover plenty of disk space by deleting files in those directories.
_________________
* Blessing /dev/hda2 with holy penguin pee

klac · n00b Joined: 14 Aug 2003 Posts: 32 Location: Winnipeg, MB

Hmm...according to this, files in /var/tmp can be deleted, just not on every reboot. X should rebuild what it needs there (I don't have it installed yet, I just finished the first emerge system from stage 1), as it's able to do so when it first runs.

Possibly, if /var/tmp is cleared out from single-user mode, it can be safely emptied.

Also, try 'find /var/tmp -atime 30 -type f' to find all files that have not been accessed in 30 days (requires that 'noatime' is not set in fstab, and has not been for at least 30 days). Swapping ctime for atime will get you files that were created more than 30 days ago; they may also be candidates for removal.

Also, check /tmp - anything there should be safe to remove (according to http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-3.15.html.
_________________
He that breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- Gandalf the Grey

neuron · Advocate Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 2371

if your using ccache rm -rf /root/.ccache/* will clean up a considerable amount of space.

teknik0s · n00b Joined: 26 May 2003 Posts: 72 Location: Texas

wow i deleted everything in /var/tmp.. now i have like 600 mb free.. i just hope it didnt mess anything up