Re: dselect tutorial

[Adam C Powell IV <hazelsct@mit.edu>]

Michel Dänzer wrote:

> Sven LUTHER wrote:
>
> > > apt-get autoclean
> > >
> > > removes all but the two latest versions of every package from the cache.
> >
> > Nice to know, ...
> >
> > but still you need at least a place equivalent to all packages you install
> > the first time. This is not so compatible i think with making small root
> > partition (50MB or so).
>
> No problem with a separate /var partition...

It's funny, I got into a long debate with Jason Gunthorpe (apt maintainer) over
this, based on a wishlist bug report I filed.  /var is supposed to be for
persistent data, like web site pages, databases, log files, etc.  For some reason
I still don't understand, .debs are considered in this category even though
dselect defaults to removing all of them from the cache after installation, so in
Jason's words:

     There is nothing to be done, /var is the FHS2 desiganted place for this

     sort of persistant data, nothing else can be used by default.

For the overwhelming majority of users, /var or / will have to be artificially
large to deal with this, wasting quite a bit of disk space.

Short-term solutions include symlinking /var/cache/apt/archives into a bigger
partition with some temporary storage, or setting the Dir::Cache variable in
apt.conf (man apt.conf; this is not very obviously documented given how many
people run into this!!)

For long-term, I've filed a wishlist bug report with gnome-apt (didn't get around
to any other front ends) requesting exposure of the apt.conf variables, so
options like Dir::Cache are more obvious to the casual user.  Jason says that
some kind of partial download, unpack, erase, download some more solution has
been a wishlist request for some time, so perhaps it will happen one day.

Any other ideas?

Zeen,

-Adam P.