Common "active" partitions free space?

[Cuddles]

Interesting question, considering that Knoppix v3.4 is my "first" install of using "multi-partition" for / (root), and for /home...

What, during a "normal" usage of, say, the root partition, is an acceptable free space? When should you worry, when should red flags be run up, etc... ?

I've been running v3.4, its root, on a 4.6 GB partition, for more than, I think, two months now... I seem to see the free space go down, more and more, does it ever get "reclaimed", or is this just a "spiral" down, until you crash? What "free space" value is a marker to do something?

My 4.6 GB root, has around 2.9 GB used, and just under 1.5 GB free - currently I am doing a "apt-file update" - and I am just watching the free space drop slowly. Being completely new at this "multi-partition" thing, I have nothing to base what I am doing, or seeing, on - previous install was a "single-partition" scheme. All I've seen is the root free space go down, and not much up, so my guess is, that this is going to keep going until it hits zero, someday...

Thanks for any information on this subject,
Ms. Cuddles

[OErjan]

normally with ext2 and ext3 and reiser you get noticable decay when it is about 85-95% full, that is you can time it with for example hdparm and similar.
if i remember correctly free space in relation to filesize (and lots of other factors) makes noticably more of a difference on smaller partitions/disks.
if you have a 95% full 350Gb hdd and add a 2048Kb file to it not much will happen spacewise there should likely be space to write the file in a nice ordered fasion, but on a 85%full 35Mb hdd that same file will be noticed and have a smaler chance to squeese in smoothly.

[baldyeti]

You might want to check your /var/cache/apt/archives directory, which is the local debian package cache. Unless you have good reasons to keep some of these .deb's around, run "apt-get clean" now and then, and these will be flushed.

[mzilikazi]

/usr is the directory that gets rather large. I always have it on its own partition. How big is /usr?

du -hc /usr

In a pinch you could always nuke some or all of the /usr/doc & /usr/share/doc directories.
You can also simply move /usr to another partition if necessary.

[Cuddles]

hmmmmmm, nice input here, now, the replies...

BaldYeti, did the command that mzilikazi suggested, on the archives folder, came up with only 183 MB - so that isn't that big - it's kind of like going after 1 or 2 KB files in your Windows directory - don't gain much, for a heck of a lot of work...

But, mzilikazi, your /usr location, did come up with around 2.4 GB of total space being used -=- Funny thing, while I watched the "junk" scroll down the screen, I realized that I still have my kernel 2.6.6 source stored there -=- I had that when I needed to compile my 2.6 kernel with the NVidia video drivers -=- can I seriously "blow" that away now??? Or should I keep it "lying" around for future??? /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 comes up with 451 MB, I also have the source for 2.4 in there, and the NVidia... du -hc /usr/src comes up with around 589 MB - so a lot of stuff is in the /usr folder, that is unaccounted for, say, around 2 GB...

ls -la of the /usr/src shows the following files / folders:

total 104184
drwxrwsr-x    6 cuddles  cuddles      4096 Jul  5 21:19 .
drwxr-xr-x   15 root     root         4096 Feb 29 00:07 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 cuddles  cuddles       361 May 14 12:31 Makefile
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles   8160802 Jun 23 11:04 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6106-pkg1.run
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles   4197816 Apr 19  2003 NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4363.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles    123316 May  5 07:21 NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4363-2.6.diff
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles    661447 Apr 19  2003 NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4363.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles   2557670 Jul  5 19:27 kernel-doc-2.6.6_123.Custom_all.deb
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles   5041764 Jul  5 20:09 kernel-headers-2.6.6_123.Custom_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles  14936126 Jul  5 20:09 kernel-image-2.6.6_123.Custom_i386.deb
-rw-r--r--    1 root     cuddles  35039722 Jul  5 19:27 kernel-source-2.6.6_123.Custom_all.deb
-rw-r--r--    1 cuddles  cuddles       849 Dec 10  2003 knoppix-kernel.README
-rw-r--r--    1 cuddles  cuddles      2122 Feb 26 21:38 knoppix-kernel.patch
-rw-r--r--    1 cuddles  cuddles       386 May  1 16:15 knoppix-kernel26.patch
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     cuddles        11 Jul  5 19:13 linux -> linux-2.6.6
drwxr-xr-x    4 cuddles  cuddles      4096 Apr 21 19:38 linux-2.4.26
drwxrwxr-x   20 500      500          4096 Jul  5 20:09 linux-2.6.6
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     cuddles  34896138 May 10 02:16 linux-2.6.6.tar.bz2
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     src          4096 Jul  5 21:22 modules
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       861200 Mar 19 17:37 nvidia-kernel-source.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x    7 cuddles  cuddles      4096 Nov  6  2003 rpm

It's not like 1.5 GB is a big deal of free space, that is a considerable size, and after two months, having only 2.9 GB used out of 4.6 GB, I would say, it isn't going to go down seriously fast, it's just I would like to "curb" the "growth" of used space, if I can, and I guess, I should, if I can. At least until I have to "gut 'n install" another Knoppix version again...

Any ideas?
Ms. Cuddles

[baldyeti]

BaldYeti, did the command that mzilikazi suggested, on the archives folder, came up with only 183 MB - so that isn't that big - it's kind of like going after 1 or 2 KB files in your Windows directory - don't gain much, for a heck of a lot of work...

How 183 Mb is like 2k and typing 'apt-get clean' a lot of work is beyond me ...

/usr/src/linux-2.6.6 comes up with 451 MB, I also have the source for 2.4 in there, and the NVidia...

Might be wise to keep these around unless you absolutely need the space. Much can probably be reclaimed by typing "make clean" or even "make distclean" in the appropriate directory. Now I don't precisely know which one since I don't have the kernel sources installed ;-) Try under /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 and /usr/src/linux-2.4.26. You can always recompile later if needs be.

du -hc /usr/src comes up with around 589 MB - so a lot of stuff is in the /usr folder, that is unaccounted for, say, around 2 GB...

¿ Er.. you're not seriously considering nuking /usr, are you ? Locations like /usr/bin and /usr/lib contain heaps of essential programs and libraries.

[Cuddles]

BaldYeti, did the command that mzilikazi suggested, on the archives folder, came up with only 183 MB - so that isn't that big - it's kind of like going after 1 or 2 KB files in your Windows directory - don't gain much, for a heck of a lot of work...

How 183 Mb is like 2k and typing 'apt-get clean' a lot of work is beyond me ...

True, I was just making a corolation, may not have been a valid one, or a 1-1 kind of thing - sorry if I boo-boo'ed...

/usr/src/linux-2.6.6 comes up with 451 MB, I also have the source for 2.4 in there, and the NVidia...

Might be wise to keep these around unless you absolutely need the space. Much can probably be reclaimed by typing "make clean" or even "make distclean" in the appropriate directory. Now I don't precisely know which one since I don't have the kernel sources installed Try under /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 and /usr/src/linux-2.4.26. You can always recompile later if needs be.

Good idea, was thinking bout the same, just didn't know the commands - Can I maybe blow away the tarballs that created them????

du -hc /usr/src comes up with around 589 MB - so a lot of stuff is in the /usr folder, that is unaccounted for, say, around 2 GB...

¿ Er.. you're not seriously considering nuking /usr, are you ? Locations like /usr/bin and /usr/lib contain heaps of essential programs and libraries.

No way, just trying to figure out where the storage may be going, thats all

Ms. Cuddles

[Cuddles]

BTW, BaldYeti, the apt-get clean gave me .2 GB freed, so I am at 1.7 GB free now, and from 66% free to 62% free, now... Gonna have to remember that one

EDIT: I also did the make clean in the /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 folder, went from 62% free up to 57% free - I also blew away the tarball for the kernel-2.6.6 bz2 file - not much got reclaimed, but its a little cleaner now...

I kinda like to see free space around the 50's, gives me a feeling of "elbow room" - comfy feeling...

Thanks BaldYeti

[mzilikazi]

But, mzilikazi, your /usr location, did come up with around 2.4 GB of total space being used -=- Funny thing, while I watched the "junk" scroll down the screen, I realized that I still have my kernel 2.6.6 source stored there -=- I had that when I needed to compile my 2.6 kernel with the NVidia video drivers -=- can I seriously "blow" that away now??? Or should I keep it "lying" around for future??? /usr/src/linux-2.6.6 comes up with 451 MB, I also have the source for 2.4 in there, and the NVidia... du -hc /usr/src comes up with around 589 MB -

Depends on which kernel you're running. When I upgrade kernels I always keep my last working kernel installed. Just in case I need to revert. Then remove the previous "known-working-kernel" as well as any source or patches that are related. If you're runnig 2.6.6 & 2.4.* is your 'known-working-kernel' I would keep it. If you've upgraded to 2.6.8.1 then get rid of the 2.4.*

so a lot of stuff is in the /usr folder, that is unaccounted for, say, around 2 GB...

You might also have a look through your installed packages and decide if you really need all of them. Perhaps some apps have simply become so much wasted space.

If you want a very good GUI for du (it's as functional as it is ugly) do:

sudo apt-get install xdiskusage
xdiskusage&

[eco2geek]

Thanks for the tip on xdiskusage. What's bizarre is that my ext3 partition has ~500M worth of inodes -- doesn't that seem a bit excessive for a 10GB partition?