[plug] Debian: removing unwanted doco files

[Grahame Bowland]

On 02 Aug 2001 10:26:22 +0800, Denis Brown wrote:
> 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.

It's probably best to remove the package that created the files - you
can 
check which package created them with:
 dpkg --search file, eg. dpkg --search /etc/apache

> 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.

apt-get clean just removes all the cache packages, auto-clean rmeoves
older 
cached packages no longer in the debian archive you use.

> 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.

You could just look for -doc packages and remove them:

dpkg --get-selections | grep doc

Cheers,
Grahame

--
Grahame Bowland, Network and Systems Administrator
University Communications Services, The University of Western Australia
Phone: +61 8 9380 1175