Bug#61259: apt may make /var full
Package: apt
Version: 0.3.18
In my machine /tmp is symlink to /var/tmp.
Today I run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. It upgraded also many
tetex-packages and installation scripts of tetex created new fonts etc. Then
my Gnome and Enlightenment hanged. I was able to move mouse, but clicking it
did not help.
I killed my X with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. I tried to log in again, but my X
exited and I was back at the gdm again. I was able to log in from
text-console, though. I stopped my gdm and tried to start my X with
zsh-alias called myx:
juhtolv@heresy:/home/juhtolv % whence myx
startx -- -dpi 100 -bpp 16 & disown && exit
juhtolv@heresy:/home/juhtolv %
It worked, but I saw no Gnome-things in my desktop. my TkDesk showed its
splash screen, but then it crashed. I logged out and started X with plain
startx without putting it to background. Then I saw, that TkDesk gave
error messages saying that it can't write to /tmp.
Then I run df. My /var was full! Then I used this algorithm to find disk
hogs.
1. cd /var
2. du -k * | sort -n
3. cd to directory that was biggest in output of aforementioned command
4. If you are not deep enough in directory tree, go to 2.
I was in /var/cache/apt/archives. If I saw two versions of same package, I
removed the older one. After that everything was fine again.
So, what should we do? I have these suggestions:
1. When package is upgraded, older debian-package must deleted from
/var/cache/apt/archives.
2. When package is deinstalled with dpkg, its package-file must be
deleted from /var/cache/apt/archives.
3. When tetex is installed or upgraded, it should remove all tetex-packages
from /var/cache/apt/archives.
Those features could be switched on and of with debconf and configuration
file.
I also have these ideas:
1. It must be possible to configure, how much free space the partition
containing /var/cache/apt/archives must have before apt-get starts to
download anything.
2. It must be possible to configure, if apt asks before deleting anything from
/var/cache/apt/archives.
--
-- Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen * * * U of Jyväskylä * * juhtolv@st.jyu.fi --
-- http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~juhtolv/ * * * * " STRAIGHT BUT NOT NARROW !! " --
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