How much free space does apt need in /var?

[montefin <montefin@finux.com>]

Hi,

First the question: how much free space in /var do you think I need for
apt-get upgrades?

I ask because:

On my first try with apt-get, I got :

E: Sorry, you don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives

I have a small disk, only 814 Mb, so /var got only 50 Mb. and only 13 Mb
of /var are currently free. It is all Debian and the current install
takes up 273 Mb out of 500 Mb in /usr so I don't think it's a very large
install.
/home still has about 35Mb available.

This is what happened:

1st I did
   # apt-get update
and that went ok

then I did
   # apt-get upgrade
and got the /var doesn't have enough free space error

then I tried
   # apt-get deselect-upgrade
hoping that would need less but I got the same error.

If I knew about how much free space apt-get might need, I could make
allowances. If apt can show that information, I haven't found where it
does yet..

My immediate concern is finishing the upgrade.

Later, I would like to add all the non-us packages, and a few of the
contrib and non-free ones too,  so any guess on a good amount for that
afterthe upgrde would help also.

Hope I've supplied enough information. Any help would be appreciated. I
like Debian very much so far.

Thanks,

montefin

SYSTEM: 486DX 66, 24Mb RAM, 814Mb HDD
[ / = 50Mb, /usr = 514Mb, /home = 150Mb, /var = 50Mb, swap = 50Mb]