Freeing up some space from your apt cache

August 16, 2008 | Utilities | By: admin

Freeing up some space from your apt cache
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Roman Sigaev

In a constrained space provided by the current netbooks, such as the Asus Eee PC, MSI Wind, etc., space is a premium. However, it is also important that you keep the OS updated with the latest patches. On the desktop, whilst having more HDD space, it is also a good idea to be freeing up unused space for your data. A new install of Ubuntu 8.04 requires you to download tons of updates to make it to 8.04.1, at least. Whilst housekeeping is pretty simple with Linux, an often missed cache is the one created by "apt-get". A simple "sudo apt-get clean" will regain you that lost space.
In my Ubuntu install, on a virtual machine, here's what I have before I deleted the cache.

BeforeAptClean
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

After running the command, here's what I regained.

AfterAptClean
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Imagine how much space that was. :)


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