It's taken me years to get around to asking this, but ...

Is there any reason, other than an historical one, to keep the files in
/var/log/removed_packages, and /var/log/removed_scripts? Mine are
currently occupying a combined 22.4 MB's. I don't see why they can't
just be rm'd, but I'm wondering if there's a gotcha lurking. Something
possibly to do with 'removepkg -preserve'?

Thanks.

--
Richard Herbert
Registered Linux user 14329
If there's nothing wrong with me, then ...
there must be something wrong with the Universe!

Richard Herbert wrote:
> It's taken me years to get around to asking this, but ...

well, i hope any follow-ups of you in this thread won't take as long. ;-)

> Is there any reason, other than an historical one, to keep the files in
> /var/log/removed_packages, and /var/log/removed_scripts? Mine are
> currently occupying a combined 22.4 MB's. I don't see why they can't
> just be rm'd, but I'm wondering if there's a gotcha lurking.

i have no experience with emptying /var/log/removed_*, but a quick
examination of the package tools doesn't reveal anything. pkgtool itself
calls the files created there 'logfiles', and the other programs don't seem
to read anything from them. installpkg will create the directories if they
don't exist, and removepkg writes to them, but that's it. i didn't find any
other reference to them in the other programs.

> Something
> possibly to do with 'removepkg -preserve'?

no, certainly not. 'removepkg -preserve' only works when you actually
remove a package. i.e., you cannot create a copy of the package's contents
in /tmp after you've deleted it.

so just go ahead and delete them.

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Slackware doesn't have any quirks. Other distros have quirks. Slackware's
just pure Linux.

Richard Herbert wrote:
> It's taken me years to get around to asking this, but ...

well, i hope any follow-ups of you in this thread won't take as long. ;-)

> Is there any reason, other than an historical one, to keep the files in
> /var/log/removed_packages, and /var/log/removed_scripts? Mine are
> currently occupying a combined 22.4 MB's. I don't see why they can't
> just be rm'd, but I'm wondering if there's a gotcha lurking.

i have no experience with emptying /var/log/removed_*, but a quick
examination of the package tools doesn't reveal anything that might cause
problems. pkgtool itself calls the files created there 'logfiles', and the
other programs don't seem to read anything from them. installpkg will
create the directories if they don't exist, and removepkg writes to them,
but that's it. i didn't find any other reference to them in the other
programs.

> Something
> possibly to do with 'removepkg -preserve'?

no, certainly not. 'removepkg -preserve' only works when you actually
remove a package. i.e., you cannot create a copy of the package's contents
in /tmp after you've deleted it.

so just go ahead and delete them.

--
Joost Kremers joostkremers@yahoo.com
Slackware doesn't have any quirks. Other distros have quirks. Slackware's
just pure Linux.

"Joost Kremers" <joostkremers@yahoo.com> wrote:

> well, i hope any follow-ups of you in this thread won't take as long.
> ;-)

Not a chance with this group. ;-)

> i have no experience with emptying /var/log/removed_*, but a quick
> examination of the package tools doesn't reveal anything. pkgtool
> itself calls the files created there 'logfiles', and the other
> programs don't seem to read anything from them. installpkg will create
> the directories if they don't exist, and removepkg writes to them, but
> that's it. i didn't find any other reference to them in the other
> programs.

Me neither. I looked at the Package Utilities section of Slackbook, but
the closest I came was the reference to /var/adm/removed_packages.
Google was no help at all. The fact that no other programs read
anything from them kinda makes them orphans, doesn't it?

> no, certainly not. 'removepkg -preserve' only works when you actually
> remove a package. i.e., you cannot create a copy of the package's
> contents in /tmp after you've deleted it.

From the Book (pasted from the site):

"-preserve The package is removed, but copied to the preserved packages
directory at the same time."

I'm gonna try it just once to satisfy my curiosity. It mentions a
directory I don't have on my system (yet).

> so just go ahead and delete them.

Thanks for the help. I will.

--
Richard Herbert
Registered Linux user 14329
If there's nothing wrong with me, then ...
there must be something wrong with the Universe!

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Richard Herbert <linux14329@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Is there any reason, other than an historical one, to keep the
> files in /var/log/removed_packages, and /var/log/removed_scripts?

No. You can safely delete the contents of /var/log/removed_*

The only reason to retain them would be for revision history
purposes. None of Slackware's package utilties rely on files
held in these directories.

- --
George Georgakis - geeg AT tripleg net au -
http://www.tripleg.net.au/
SlackBuild Central - http://slackpack.tripleg.net.au/

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