How do Archers keep their systems clean?

Unia · 2011-07-16 17:27:13

I've been wondering for a while, how do you guys keep your system clean? When my system was exactly how I wanted it, I went on trying other applications et cetera. This brought all sorts of packages and dependencies with it, for which I accurately kept a list so I could uninstall all off them and thus, keep my system clean. (Don't get me wrong, I know off the -Rns switch, but I'd still like to check for all dependencies.)

So, how do you do this? Off course there's pacman -Rs $(pacman -Qtdq) and cleaning your cache afterwards. But what other tricks do you have, except for those and the manual-dependency list?

Last edited by Unia (2011-07-16 17:28:19)

ozar · 2011-07-16 17:37:11

I always make system images right after a fresh install, then it's no problem to experiment at will and break the system routinely because it's only about a 3 or 4 minute restoration process to bring the system back to its pristine condition.

Edit: forgot to add that any upgrades that I like call for a new imaging process.

Last edited by ozar (2011-07-16 17:39:36)

Unia · 2011-07-16 18:57:17

If I get that right, that's more like a backup than keeping things clean and uncluttered. It sounds interesting though, I gotta look into that. Any hints for me?

Dastingo · 2011-07-16 19:41:41

The easiest way to do that is to have 2 Arch installs: one for the system you want, and another for experimenting.

Personally, If I want to change something as major as a DE then I would fully reinstall, even if I can switch without reinstalling, it makes things easier.

Currently, on my laptop I have Arch LXDE 32bit (Main install) and Arch KDE 64bit (Looking pretty good, I might switch to it as main system someday)

Last edited by Dastingo (2011-07-16 19:44:23)

keenerd · 2011-07-16 20:20:29

I use "pacgraph -c" to find what takes up space and then "pacman -Rss" whatever junk pacgraph turns up. Occasionally I'll use "pacgraph-tk" to find apps with crazy deps, then rebuild from ABS without the deps.

To free up space in $home, Ncdu is handy.

Last edited by keenerd (2011-07-16 20:24:24)

matse · 2011-07-16 21:37:10

pacgraph was indeed a great tip! I really like it!

And to the topic: before knowing "pacgraph" I just used "pacman -Qdt" to find orphans (and mostly deleted them) and filelight to find big directories.

Last edited by matse (2011-07-16 21:46:01)

Unia · 2011-07-16 21:45:46

Great tip, pacgraph! What exactly does Ncdu do, what you can't do with a file manager? (check for leftover config files?)

Last edited by Unia (2011-07-16 21:48:20)

cybertorture · 2011-07-16 22:13:26

@Unia it broswe directories but with disk usage info and sort this by space taken.
it is usefull to check what is taking too much space

Awebb · 2011-07-16 22:51:41

ncdu is my favorite tool to check folder sizes. It basically does a "du" on a target folder and allows you to browse the folders sorted by filesize. It's similar to treesize, gt5 and... what was that in Ubuntu that was called... I forgot what it was called :-D

karol · 2011-07-16 23:03:38

Awebb wrote:

ncdu is my favorite tool to check folder sizes. It basically does a "du" on a target folder and allows you to browse the folders sorted by filesize. It's similar to treesize, gt5 and... what was that in Ubuntu that was called... I forgot what it was called :-D

wiki to the rescue https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … y_Programs !

anonymous_user · 2011-07-17 01:23:18

You may also want to keep an eye on files not owned by any packages:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … ny_package

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=90320

karol · 2011-07-31 04:59:19

Another tool is in the pipeline: http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 13926.html

Zerathidune · 2011-08-08 18:48:40

This is basically why I wrote pacsync:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=109028

With that, I can install packages wildly without fear, then when I want my system back to normal, just run pacsync. If I haven't tweaked my config to include the new packages I want, all the crap I installed gets removed. It's not a perfect solution, but it's certainly nice to have. It solves a few other problems too.

Cyrusm · 2011-08-08 22:16:57

hose all the dust out of the case every 3 months. clean the keyboard and monitors weekly.

ScionicSpectre · 2011-08-17 08:44:19

I just clean my cache and unneeded dependencies after I try a ton of new stuff I don't want to keep. Aside from that, I guess I'm just satisfied with a single set of applications most of the time, so I don't commonly clutter up my system.

karol · 2011-08-21 11:01:51

You may want to try pacruft.

Unia · 2011-08-21 12:31:46

karol wrote:

You may want to try pacruft.

It looks good, but it also lists packages that I think aren't safe to remove, even though you haven't used them quite a while. For example, it listed grub :\

Still gotta look into pacsync, it looks promising but also time consuming..

Mr_ED-horsey · 2011-08-21 21:03:15

I usually run these two commands:

pacman -Scc
pacman -Rs $(pacman -Qqtd) - although every once in a while this tries to remove things I use...

Bleachbit is a pretty good GUI app too.

Last edited by Mr_ED-horsey (2011-08-21 21:04:20)

graysky · 2011-08-21 21:09:51

anonymous_user wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … ny_package

This is a great script. To enhance it, having two columns as the output the first would be the file and the 2nd would be the corresponding filesize sorted in decending order would be great! Anyone with bash skills up to it?

+1 for bleachbit by the way.

# bleachbit --delete system.cache system.localizations system.trash system.tmp

Last edited by graysky (2011-08-21 21:12:41)

ataraxia · 2011-08-21 21:37:19

graysky wrote:

anonymous_user wrote:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … ny_package
This is a great script. To enhance it, having two columns as the output the first would be the file and the 2nd would be the corresponding filesize sorted in decending order would be great! Anyone with bash skills up to it?

Replace the last line of the script with:

comm -23 "$fs" "$db" | xargs stat -c "%n %s" | sort -rn -k 2

This will misbehave if any unpackaged files have spaces in their names. In that case, you might just want to reverse the size and name fields, like this:

comm -23 "$fs" "$db" | xargs stat -c "%s %n" | sort -rn

I find that version's output much easier to read in any case.

I didn't put this in the wiki page as I think it's of limited utility.

Unia · 2011-08-22 11:34:19

Bleachbit looks and is great! Another tool for my standard set up

jlcordeiro · 2011-08-27 21:14:29

After I install stuff for tests I query the installed packages by date and remove what I don't want (easiest way I found to go back to my stable system. I just need to have an idea of what I started installing for the tests.)

yaourt -Q --date

Unia · 2011-08-27 22:04:24

^ Sorting by date.. clever! Also, I just set up pacsync and gotta say, it is amazing! Just what I was looking for actually!

ilius · 2012-03-12 13:37:50

I use baobab (Gnome's Disk Usage Analizer)
But also thanks for the pacgraph (I was using some bash scripts instead of that)

Using baobab or du with some fstab directory bind is usefull:

/usr /arch/usr auto bind 0 0
/var /arch/var auto bind 0 0
/opt /arch/opt auto bind 0 0
/lib /arch/lib auto bind 0 0
/home /arch/home auto bind 0 0
/root /arch/root auto bind 0 0

And you just write "sudo baobab /arch" (or du /arch ...), and it doesn't count your personal data on mounted drives.

Last edited by ilius (2012-03-12 13:39:14)

Psykorgasm · 2012-03-12 14:03:22

I always remove anything I dont need with -Rsnc and the same with pacman -Rsnc $(pacman -Qdqt)

Dastingo wrote:

The easiest way to do that is to have 2 Arch installs: one for the system you want, and another for experimenting.
Personally, If I want to change something as major as a DE then I would fully reinstall, even if I can switch without reinstalling, it makes things easier.

Also I would strongly agree/suggest [with] this.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-16 17:27:13

How do Archers keep their systems clean?

#2 2011-07-16 17:37:11

Re: How do Archers keep their systems clean?

#3 2011-07-16 18:57:17

Re: How do Archers keep their systems clean?

#4 2011-07-16 19:41:41

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#5 2011-07-16 20:20:29

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#6 2011-07-16 21:37:10

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#7 2011-07-16 21:45:46

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#8 2011-07-16 22:13:26

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#9 2011-07-16 22:51:41

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#10 2011-07-16 23:03:38

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#11 2011-07-17 01:23:18

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#12 2011-07-31 04:59:19

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#13 2011-08-08 18:48:40

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#14 2011-08-08 22:16:57

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#15 2011-08-17 08:44:19

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#16 2011-08-21 11:01:51

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#17 2011-08-21 12:31:46

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#18 2011-08-21 21:03:15

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#19 2011-08-21 21:09:51

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#20 2011-08-21 21:37:19

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#21 2011-08-22 11:34:19

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#22 2011-08-27 21:14:29

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#23 2011-08-27 22:04:24

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#24 2012-03-12 13:37:50

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#25 2012-03-12 14:03:22

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