Re: /var/cache/man/...
On 11/04/14 02:15, Mike McClain wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 09:14:39AM +1000, Scott Ferguson wrote:
>> On 10/04/14 01:44, Mike McClain wrote:
>>> The other day I noticed my computer clutteres up with many
>>> directories in /var/cache/man/ for languages I don't speak so I
>>> deleted them.
>>
>> That was a mistake. You're new to this "sysadmin" stuff right? ;)
>
> Yeah, I've only been maintaining my own *nix system for 16 years.
By "deleting" files generated by unknown processes? It's system
administration, just not as I know it - but it's your system, so you
don't have to worry about employers, insurers and industry best
practices. But clearly you know all the answers.
>
>>> Today they're back but I can't tell how they got there.
>>
>> That's good, it means your "delete what I don't like or understand"
>> didn't create a huge problem.
>
> I've never created such a problem that I had to re-install, anything
> else is not a 'huge' problem.
Agree, my comment wasn't sarcasm.
>> From your response I suspect you don't know what triggers the
>> re-creation of those unneeded directories.
>
>>> Nothing in /etc/cron/* says anything about recreating them. I assume
>>> mandb did it but can't tell what initiated the recreation of all
>>> these directories. Nor can I see any need, I don't imagine very many
>>> people speak all of those 23 languages. What is the purpose of having
>>> all of them installed?
>>
>> Um, didn't *you* install them?
>> Wouldn't that make it a rhetorical question?
>> :)
>
> I installed the whole system so in that manner you are correct but I
> did not ask for all those other languages.
Unless you specifically don't ask for them, that's what you get - it's a
result of the one-size-fits-all metapackage system designed to mostly
work in most situations.
Specifically *not* asking for them takes a bit of work, e.g. installing
debconf-english instead of debconf-i18n, starting with a very minimal
system and installing (and configuring) localepurge before installing
additional packages.
>
>> The answer of course is that most people use characters and words from a
>> number of languages. Those extra man pages don't take up a lot of space.
>
> The fact that I like enchiladas doesn't mean I need spanish man pages.
>
>> You have several options:-
>> ;don't install all languages to start with (be selective during installs
>> - don't install i18n packages if you don't want internationalization)
>
> I didn't, the only packages installed that mention 'i18n' are:
> debconf-i18n 1.5.49
> libtext-wrapi18n-perl 0.06-7
> and I certainly didn't ask that debconf be international.
# apt-get install debconf-english localepurge
will help, but it's easier to do before most packages are installed.
>
>> ;don't install man
>
> Get real.
Great attitude. If you don't like the answers perhaps you should answer
your own questions and save bandwidth.
<snipped>
Regards
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