freeing up some space
So I'm poking around with mc, and happened across /var/cache/apt/archives which has a LOT of *.deb files in it, and which seems to include many versions of the same package, some of them many years old, going all the way back to 2013. I guess I've been running debian a little longer than I'd thought...
Is it okay to just delete older versions of these files? Or should I be doing something using one of the package management tools? I've mostly used synaptic, but am also aware of apt-get, apt, aptitude, and am not real clear on their comparative capabilities.
I'm looking at over 7500 files amounting to over 9.5GB.
I also see /var/cache/dictionaries-common, which appears to be tied to a spelling checker, which I don't use here. And /var/cache/samba, which I also don't use -- there isn't a windoze machine around here at all.
What's the best way to get all of this excess stuff out of the system?
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
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