Re: [gentoo-user] System maintenance procedure?

[Dale]

Grant wrote:
> > > I think you're right about that.  Can I configure eclean to wait a
> > > certain number of days since a package was removed before cleaning it?
> > >  Even if I only run it once per week, it could remove a package that
> > > was updated yesterday that I find out I need tomorrow.
> > >
> > > - Grant
> >
> >
> > -t, --time-limit=<time>    don't delete files modified since <time>
> > <time> is an amount of time: "1y" is "one year", "2w" is "two
> weeks", etc.
> > Units are: y (years), m (months), w (weeks), d (days) and h (hours).
>
> Thanks Dale.
>
> > I found that in man eclean.
>
> I'm sorry, I didn't consider a parameter like that for some reason.

It actually has quite a few options.  I rarely use them on my new rig
but did on my old rig.  My old rig is MUCH slower than this new one.

>
> Should it be alright to depclean every day?  As long as I use
> --time-limit with 'eclean packages', I should be able to reinstall
> anything that depclean removes even if it's pruned from Portage.
>
> - Grant

I run depclean about once a month after a large update, usually KDE, qt
or something like that.  I sync and update about twice a week.  I try to
time mine to hit those important updates to things like KDE or
something.  I'm actually waiting on KDE 4.9.4 to hit the tree now.  It
should be there pretty soon, if there is no major problems.

I would set a rough update time schedule. If say you set yours to update
every week, then keep two maybe three weeks of old packages.  If a
package can work for a few weeks, survive reboots and a couple updates,
then odds are it is safe to remove the binaries you built for it.  The
sources, I usually only keep what I have installed.  Most of the time
that is enough.  If you have the hard drive space, you can keep them
like you do the binary package.  If you pick a monthly update time
frame, then adjust your time frame for old packages.  You may can keep
less of them depending on how you run your rig. 

When you use eclean and friends with no options, it seems to leave a
pretty good set of binaries behind.  It leaves what is installed plus a
older version or two.  It's been a while since i really looked into this
but it seems to have a fairly safe setting when you just run the plain
command with no options.  When you use the -d option, it leaves only
what you have installed and gets rid of everything else.  The -d option
is about the most aggressive option for eclean.

This is just to give you ideas.  This is one of those 'it depends'
questions.  The technically correct way is to run depclean after each
full update.  Thing is, I doubt it will hurt anything if you leave them
on there except for taking up drive space.

Just don't forget to update the configs after each update.  Sometimes
missing those can lead to a system that won't boot.  It's not very
likely but they do happen from time to time. 

Another thing about my system that may help you, I keep a copy of /etc
and my world file backed up.  When I reboot, which is not to often, I
make a new backup of /etc.  Right now, my uptime is almost 75 days.  I
keep that backup just in case something will only break when rebooting. 
Some config files are only read when booting so until you reboot, you
don't know you have a problem.  Having a copy of the world file is good
in case you lose the drive with the OS on it.  You can at least know
what you need to emerge to get back to where you were. 

Hope that helps.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!