[plug] Debian: removing unwanted doco files

[Denis Brown]

Hello.

Just upgraded a Debian slink (2.1) to potato (2.2r3) box using 
apt-get.  Plain sailing and painless until I did a df and found 32KB left 
in my usr partition.  I started with 30-odd megs free there.  Didn't take 
long to find that a lot of extra documentation has been placed in 
/usr/doc/* most notably a new directory HOWTO.

I'd welcome the extra doco were it not for limited disk space.  I figure I 
can get rid of the HOWTO directory and its contents without breaking 
anything but what about things like foreign language messages?  For example 
the directory /usr/share/locale always contained a lot of foreign language 
files, now there are even more.  Again, presumably the unwanted ones can be 
removed without breaking anything but it never hurts to check with wiser 
heads than mine.

An "apt-get clean" had a wonderful effect on disk space in the other 
partition (everything is there except for /usr) and "apt-get auto-clean" 
did not have anything to offer for /usr either.

For my benefit, and for other potential upgradees, is there something I can 
do in future upgrades via apt-get (or dselect?) to control the loading of 
documentation?  Apt-get man pages show that it has increased options over 
its earlier cousin but I cannot find anything relating to documentation 
package control.

TIA,
Denis