[SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

amaro · 2022-02-23 13:53:44

Hello everybody!

Removed 'ristretto' and was surprised with a lot of packages that go with it

armv ristretto
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  hddtemp libxnvctrl0 ristretto xfburn xfce4-battery-plugin xfce4-clipman xfce4-clipman-plugin
  xfce4-cpufreq-plugin xfce4-cpugraph-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-dict
  xfce4-diskperf-plugin xfce4-fsguard-plugin xfce4-genmon-plugin xfce4-goodies
  xfce4-mailwatch-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-screenshooter
  xfce4-sensors-plugin xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin xfce4-taskmanager
  xfce4-timer-plugin xfce4-verve-plugin xfce4-wavelan-plugin xfce4-weather-plugin
  xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 29 to remove and 57 not upgraded.
After this operation, 23.6 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

Decided to reinstall the ones I use

ains xfce4-weather-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin xfce4-datetime-plugin
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  xfce4-datetime-plugin xfce4-weather-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 57 not upgraded.
Need to get 3,068 kB of archives.
After this operation, 7,682 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://devuan.ipacct.com/devuan/merged chimaera/main i386 xfce4-datetime-plugin i386 0.8.1-1 [37.4 kB]
Get:2 http://devuan.ipacct.com/devuan/merged chimaera/main i386 xfce4-weather-plugin i386 0.11.0-1 [2,560 kB]
Get:3 http://devuan.ipacct.com/devuan/merged chimaera/main i386 xfce4-xkb-plugin i386 1:0.8.2-1 [470 kB]
Fetched 3,068 kB in 1s (2,179 kB/s)

Surprised that these packages are seen as NEW and will have to be downloaded again.
Why are these packages not in some cache folder?
After all I did not purge them.

hevidevi · 2022-02-23 14:04:31

You just need to be aware of various installation methods. If you dont want stupid meta package issues you need to do a minimal install and make sure you use the flag --no-install-recommends to avoid issues such as this.

chris2be8 · 2022-02-23 17:01:59

I've not used armv and ains but if they work like apt then installing the ones you wanted to keep before removing ristretto would mark them not to to be removed when the meta package they were par of is removed.

So the process would be:
Test removing ristretto (either do a simulate run or reply 'n' to the prompt).
Install the packages you want to keep. This should only mark them as wanted.
Remove ristretto (check the list of packages to be removed *before* replying 'y').

That *should* stop anything needing to be re-downloaded.

Chris

amaro · 2022-02-23 17:06:26

thank you, hevidevi!

this not keeping cached packages seems to be the default policy
after removing 'libreoffice' two 'gstreamer' packages and some other related to them packages were removed too
so I had to install them again and again they were labeled as NEW and downloaded again
which means there is no cached packages folder where they can be retrieved from

ains gstreamer1.0-gtk3 gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  liba52-0.7.4 libmpeg2-4 libopencore-amrnb0 libopencore-amrwb0 libsidplay1v5
Suggested packages:
  sidplay-base
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gstreamer1.0-gtk3 gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly liba52-0.7.4 libmpeg2-4 libopencore-amrnb0
  libopencore-amrwb0 libsidplay1v5
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 31 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,085 kB of archives.

this is the only "flaw" I have come across for the two weeks I have been using Devuan
I guess to logic behind this is that everything runs smoothly once you get the system according to your liking (so why keeping cached old packages)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-02-23 17:09:17

Required reading: https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=104157

GlennW · 2022-02-23 22:30:05

Hi, the apt cache is in /var/cache/apt/

In Synaptic (package manager) there is a switch (tick box) for keeping cached items, settings/preferences/files/temporary-files.

It won't empty the cache automagically.

So if your /var folder is large enough you may leave the cached packages there or copy them for archiving.

I hope this helps you. All the best.

<edit>
If you use aptitude (package manager) in the file: /etc/apt/apt.conf

there is 2 lines you could toggle to false...

Aptitude::Autoclean-After-Update "true";
Aptitude::Clean-After-Install "true";

I have little experience with aptitude. ymmv
</edit>

Last edited by GlennW (2022-02-23 22:36:12)

amaro · 2022-02-24 13:58:39

@ chris2be8
Thank you, Chris!
This worked!

btw, 'ains' and 'armv' are aliases.

@Head_on_a_Stick
Thank you! Read it, bookmarked it!

@GlennW
Thank you! I rarely use 'synaptic' so will check those lines in '/etc/apt/apt.conf'.
For the record, I looked in '/var/cache/apt/' before writing this post and there were 10-12 packages only (which is far from the number of packages I installed after OS installation) and of course those I mentioned were not there.

p.s. Well...

cat /etc/apt/apt.conf
cat: /etc/apt/apt.conf: No such file or directory

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#1 2022-02-23 13:53:44

[SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#2 2022-02-23 14:04:31

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#3 2022-02-23 17:01:59

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#4 2022-02-23 17:06:26

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#5 2022-02-23 17:09:17

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#6 2022-02-23 22:30:05

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

#7 2022-02-24 13:58:39

Re: [SOLVED] in which (cache) folder are installed packages

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