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I use synaptic to download first and install later.
Usually I install everything but core system files, that I leave to install later.
Synaptic button "delete cached package files" ignores the fact of many files not being installed yet.
By deprecated I mean older version of downloaded packages.
I have already tried apt-get autoclean and it is not what I need (it cleaned nothing actually...). clean option is also useless, it cleaned everything!

Can it be done with some simple command or I have to use some script to compare installed VS downloaded/old versions?

var/cache/apt/archives occupying huge space didn't help

I need to do it that way because of: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/624845/how-to-disable-and-re-enable-the-same-lvm-mirror-leg-only-to-update-system-core

Btw, now, for installed ones I am using: apt list --installed |sed -r 's"(.*)/.* (.*) (.*) .*"\1_\2_\3.deb"' |while read strFile;do strFile="echo "$strFile" |sed -r 's":"%3a"'";if [[ -f "$strFile" ]];then sudo rm -v $strFile;fi;done

Aquarius Power
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  • Look at apt's autoclean. See man apt-get. Alternately, make a very minor change to your workflow: Clean your cache right after you finish installing all those core system updates. – user535733 Dec 16 '20 at 20:50
  • oh sorry, I have already tried apt-get autoclean and it is not what I need (it cleaned nothing actually...). clean option is also useless, it cleaned everything! Yep I enabled synaptic option but it will only work for new files not old ones. – Aquarius Power Dec 16 '20 at 20:58
  • If autoclean "cleaned nothing", then you don't seem to have any obsolete packages in your cache. That implies that you might be down the mistaken path of an XY Problem. Edit your question to clearly explain the actual problem you encounter that leads you to believe cleaning out the apt cache is a desirable solution. – user535733 Dec 16 '20 at 21:11
  • @user535733 I do have already installed for ex.: fluid-soundfont-gm_3.1-5.1_all.deb but autoclean did NOT clean it... My question is also about installed packages, not only old ones. – Aquarius Power Dec 16 '20 at 22:01
  • Correct: fluid-soundfont-gm_3.1-5.1_all.deb is ineligible for autoclean. It's the latest version; not obsolete, not "deprecated". You can clean it: `sudo apt clean <package_name>...but that leads you down the path of scripting a custom solution. Are you saying that your apt cache is simply too large? (how large is it?) – user535733 Dec 16 '20 at 22:33
  • it has 1GB and 1123 files, the only way I would have patience dealing with it would be thru a script :). My root has only 15GB and I need every 0.1GB I can recover and that cache is in the way... :/ – Aquarius Power Dec 19 '20 at 01:54
  • for installed I am using this: apt list --installed |sed -r 's"(.*)/.* (.*) (.*) .*"\1_\2_\3.deb"' |while read strFile;do if [[ -f "$strFile" ]];then sudo rm -v "$strFile";fi;done – Aquarius Power Dec 24 '20 at 02:16

1 Answers1

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I wrote a tool (apt-deepclean) to manage this for us. It's available on github.

I run it once a day out of a cronjob. Our archives were over 20GB at one point!

Bill McGonigle
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  • Requires Perl module AptPkg, which is not present on Linux system by default and must be installed using sudo apt-get install libapt-pkg-perl. – Andrew P. Jun 07 '22 at 16:01