Package: release-notes Version: 1.69 Priority: wishlist Tags: patch I think it would be nice for the Release Notes to warn admins to review their disk space before attempting an upgrade. Attached is a first attempt at such a section. A full section on how to keep systems clean should be left on the "Debian Reference" (although I don't see any there). I've added some references in the comments of the patch) Regards Javier
--- release-notes.en.sgml 2005-12-12 00:50:44.000000000 +0100
+++ release-notes.en.sgml.jfs 2006-04-19 11:22:33.000000000 +0200
@@ -616,6 +616,77 @@
occur.</p>
</sect1>
+
+ <sect1><heading>Make sure you have sufficient space for the upgrade</heading>
+
+ <p>You have to make sure before upgrading your system that you have
+ sufficient hard disk space when you start the full system upgrade
+ described in <ref id="upgrading_other">. You will first need
+ enough hard disk on the filesystem partition that holds <file>/var/</file>
+ to temporarily download the packages that will be installed in your system.
+ After the download, you will probably need more space in other
+ filesystem partitions in order to both install upgraded packages (which
+ might contain bigger binaries or more data) and new packages that will be pulled
+ in for the upgrade. If your system does not have sufficient space you
+ might end up with an incomplete upgrade that might be difficult to
+ recover from.</p>
+
+<!-- JFS: Apt will not always abort if you do not have enough disk space.
+ For reference see: #247331, #214119, #192146, #185201, #40438 and #32919 -->
+
+ <p>Both <prgn/aptitude/ and <prgn/apt/ will show you detailed information
+ of the disk space needed for the installation. You can see this estimate
+ before executing the actual upgrade running:
+ </p>
+
+ <p><example>
+# aptitude -y -s -f --with-recommends dist-upgrade
+[ ... ]
+XXX upgraded, XXX newly installed, XXX to remove and XXX not upgraded.
+Need to get xx.xMB/yyyMB of archives. After unpacking AAAMB will be used.
+Would download/install/remove packages.
+</example></p>
+
+
+ <p>If you do not have enough space for the upgrade, make sure you free up
+ space beforehand. You can:
+ </p>
+
+<!-- JFS There are more tips at
+ http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2005/11/msg02078.html
+ or
+ http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/143
+ but maybe that should be in the Debian Reference best and pointed from here -->
+ <list>
+
+<!-- JFS: Does aptitude to 'apt-get autoclean' by itself? -->
+ <item>Remove packages that have been previously downloaded for
+ installation (at <file>/var/cache/apt/archive</file>, cleaning up the
+ package cache by running <prgn>apt-get clean</prgn>.
+
+<!-- JFS Point to http://www.enricozini.org/blog/eng/pkgsizestat.html ?
+ Enrico's script shows files that occupy space in a given partition
+ which might be good for systems that are heavily partitioned -->
+
+ <item>Remove old packages you no longer use. If you have
+ <prgn/popularity-contest/ installed you can use
+ <prgn/popcon-largest-unused/ to list the packages you do not use in the
+ system that occupy the most space. You can also use <prgn/deborphan/
+ or <prgn/debfoster/ to find obsolete packages (see
+ <ref id="obsolete">)
+
+ <item>Remove packages that take up too much space and you do not
+ have an inmediate need for (you can always reinstall them after the
+ upgrade). You can list packages that take up most of the disk space
+ with <prgn/dpigs/ (available in the <prgn/debian-goodies/ package)
+ or with <prgn/wajig/ (running <prgn>wajig size</prgn>).
+
+ <item>Temporarily move to another system, or permanently remove, system
+ logs residing under <file>/var/log/</file>.
+
+ </list>
+
+ </sect1>
</sect>
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