Is is safe to prune /usr?

aquavitae · 2009-05-30 08:13:30

Not sure if this is the right place for this...

Is is safe to delete all empty directories in /usr using a command something like

find /usr -type d -empty -delete

ebal · 2009-05-30 08:25:28

i wouldnt suggest it

karol · 2009-05-30 10:37:10

Why would you like to? Let me tell you a story.

Back in the early nineties, when I was doing PC/LAN support, I was approached by a nervous salesman. He was very concerned because Excel did not work on his computer anymore. I asked when it had stopped working and what he had done. He explained that he had tried to speed Excel up by deleting some spreadsheet files that he did not need, hoping that that would boost performance.
Now, whenever a user gets into trouble after deleting something, this usually needs immediate attention. So I asked him to tell me exactly what he deleted. The horrifying answer was that he had used the File Manager to delete all Excel files he found -- you know, files of type exe.
I went pale. He said, "That was bad, huh?"

R00KIE · 2009-05-30 13:45:32

karol wrote:

Why would you like to? Let me tell you a story.
Back in the early nineties, when I was doing PC/LAN support, I was approached by a nervous salesman. He was very concerned because Excel did not work on his computer anymore. I asked when it had stopped working and what he had done. He explained that he had tried to speed Excel up by deleting some spreadsheet files that he did not need, hoping that that would boost performance.
Now, whenever a user gets into trouble after deleting something, this usually needs immediate attention. So I asked him to tell me exactly what he deleted. The horrifying answer was that he had used the File Manager to delete all Excel files he found -- you know, files of type exe.
I went pale. He said, "That was bad, huh?"

Hahaha good analogy

If it isn't broken don't try to fix it, by deleting something you are asking for trouble later on. Besides, if it wasn't needed the Arch devs would have removed it a long time ago

aquavitae · 2009-05-31 05:23:42

I was going through my system looking for unowned files, and deleting them if I was sure they were redundant (e.g. some old nvidia drivers left over from a manual install), and I noticed that quite a few of them left behind empty directories. I then ran find -type d -empty and discovered that, in addition to the one's I'd just cleared were a whole lot of others, mostly in /usr/share. But these might also be left over from old packages. The only reason I want to do this is in a cruft-cleaning attempt. And I'd like to know because I'm just curious about it

karol · 2009-05-31 08:42:32

If you call empty dirs "cruft" than don't let me stop you. If you know what you're doing, go ahead. If you're not sure, turn of your computer and take your gf/bf to the beach.
Clean install is easy enough, that should take care of any leftover garbage.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-30 08:13:30

Is is safe to prune /usr?

#2 2009-05-30 08:25:28

Re: Is is safe to prune /usr?

#3 2009-05-30 10:37:10

Re: Is is safe to prune /usr?

#4 2009-05-30 13:45:32

Re: Is is safe to prune /usr?

#5 2009-05-31 05:23:42

Re: Is is safe to prune /usr?

#6 2009-05-31 08:42:32

Re: Is is safe to prune /usr?

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