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non-free install uses too much space

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CGH
Posts: 9
Joined: 2010-08-14 19:13

non-free install uses too much space

#1 Post by CGH »

Hi all,

after I installed debian, using a non-free image (I wanted wifi out of the box), I installed the stuff I daily use: latex, opera, dropbox, skype and mathematica. By curiosity I checked how much space I was using. Lo and behold, /usr/share is using 7.4 G!! This struck me as strange, since the same installation with an official image only uses 3.7 G.

So my question, dear forum, is: why? why am I using so much space?

Below is the output of "sudo du -h --max-depth=1 /usr/share/ | sort -h" both of the free and non-free installation. For brevity, I only added the folders bigger than 10M.

Non-free

Code: Select all

~$ sudo du -h --max-depth=1 /usr/share/ | sort -h
11M	/usr/share/qt5
12M	/usr/share/poppler
12M	/usr/share/presage
13M	/usr/share/anthy
16M	/usr/share/fcitx
17M	/usr/share/aspell
20M	/usr/share/perl
25M	/usr/share/tegaki
31M	/usr/share/perl5
54M	/usr/share/gimp
55M	/usr/share/java
67M	/usr/share/man
90M	/usr/share/help
103M	/usr/share/mythes
110M	/usr/share/dict
123M	/usr/share/icons
129M	/usr/share/AAVMF
154M	/usr/share/hunspell
159M	/usr/share/skypeforlinux
300M	/usr/share/texmf
342M	/usr/share/locale
754M	/usr/share/fonts
836M	/usr/share/libreoffice
1.8G	/usr/share/texlive
2.1G	/usr/share/doc
7.4G	/usr/share/
Free

Code: Select all

~$ sudo du -h --max-depth=1 /usr/share/ | sort -h
11M	/usr/share/qt5
12M	/usr/share/poppler
14M	/usr/share/gimp
14M	/usr/share/hplip
15M	/usr/share/java
20M	/usr/share/perl
21M	/usr/share/mythes
24M	/usr/share/man
38M	/usr/share/libreoffice
90M	/usr/share/texmf
95M	/usr/share/help
128M	/usr/share/icons
159M	/usr/share/skypeforlinux
175M	/usr/share/fonts
391M	/usr/share/locale
1023M	/usr/share/texlive
1.4G	/usr/share/doc
3.7G	/usr/share
As you can see, latex is 800M heavier, and so is libreoffice. /docs is 700M heavier, and fonts some 650M. Then /texmf is 210M heavier. /hunspell is 150M heavier. /AAVMF is nowhere to be seen in the free installation. I have no idea what this guy does. There I have 129M extra. Summing up, there I have roughly 3G of extra stuff.

Two question: Why? and what can (should) I uninstall?

Saludos!

HarborView
Posts: 41
Joined: 2014-02-01 02:21
Location: The Space Coast of the USA

Re: non-free install uses too much space

#2 Post by HarborView »

I think you mean you installed the OS from a disc and then installed these apps and you find they have twice the disk space.

That's perfectly normal and easily solvable. The simplest answer to your question is:

/var/cache/apt/archives

When you install a program it is downloaded as a .deb file to /var/cache/apt/archives . It is then a compressed binary file but binary does not have much to exploit for compression.

dpkg then takes that .deb file and installs it to wherever -- typically /usr/lib . That's the real operating program.

But the .deb file remains.

So go to /var/cache/apt/archives and delete everything with a rm -r * . There is a partial and you might as well delete it too. It will be reestablished at the next use of apt-get. Or you could use bleachbit . If you don't have it already, you should, since it clears out that directory as part of its operation.

AND YOU GOT OFF EASY!

I have a separate root partition and I figured it should be the size of the OS, the size of the user programs, room for a couple kernels and a 1 GB more. Then after a large install I rebooted and X11 would not boot. The situation required a session of command line, dread and muttering "don't panic. don't panic" till I discovered what had taken over the scratch space that X11 needed.

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