Cache not cleaned
Hi, my cache folder (/var/tmp/pamac-build-cdfa) is 12.7GB at the moment. I tried running pamac-clean-cache, but that didn't clear it. Then I looked at clean_cache.vala and I noticed you just run paccache, but paccache -dk0 or even sudo paccache -dk0 -c /var/tmp/pamac-build-cdfa/ didn't work either. It seems something is wrong with pamac's integration into the system, but I don't know what it would be.
Activity
As far as I know, pamac-clean-cache is used to clean the package cache (by default /var/cache/pacman/pkg, the directory where all packages downloaded from repos are put), not to clean old build files. You can clean your build directory manually with a file manager or with a terminal (you should not need root level of privileges to do so, normally).
Although I agree that being able to quickly clean up the build directory with one single button could be a nice thing to have, especially nowadays since Pamac builds packages in /var/tmp and not in /tmp anymore.
I don't know if Pamac already do some sort of cleanup automatically and if so, how frequent and deep it does it. @guinux How does Pamac deals with the old build files currently?
Edited by Frog McRibbitAs far as I know, pamac-clean-cache is used to clean the package cache (by default /var/cache/pacman/pkg, the directory where all packages downloaded from repos are put), not to clean old build files.
Ah, that clears up some things. I have cleaned it manually now, but managing these build files like the package cache (i.e. automatically remove all or only uninstalled packages regularly or even set a maximum size) would be really helpful.
but managing these build files like the package cache (i.e. automatically remove all or only uninstalled packages regularly or even set a maximum size) would be really helpful.
It is not handled automatically like the package cache, but there is now a sweet new function that allows you to clean your build directory in one single command.
Pamac GTK: Go in Preferences > AUR, and click on "Clean build files".
Pamac CLI: pamac clean -b
See this commit: 5740d6dc
There is not an official release (as something like Pamac 7.3.6 or 7.4.0), but the changes got backported to Pamac 7.3.5 on Manjaro. See pamac-gtk 7.3.5-4 if you are curious; as far as I know it is currently only available in Testing and Unstable.
Note that it will delete ALL files in your build directory.
Edited by Frog McRibbitThat's great to hear! I don't really feel like moving to unstable, but I'll try it when it lands in the next release.
I'd also like to keep this issue open for the automatic cleaning, because even though I could cobble together my own system before that now (to be honest I could have done it with
rmbefore, but you never know when it's for a program you didn't write), but I think it would be useful for many people to be able to configure this and have it on by default (Nobody likes having their disk "mysteriously" filled up with every update).Hmm, I forgot about those. I don't think I have any but I agree people should be able to. Sadly, I think working around this would also be quite difficult. Maybe some kind of mark on packages that shouldn't get cleaned? Or a separate directory to collect those in? I don't know, but any real solution probably deserves it's own issue, so I think this one can be closed.
Thanks for your help :)
@cdfa You might want to try setting a tmpfs directory (e.g.
/dev/shm, or/tmpin some distributions) as the default place for AUR builds. They are allocated in RAM, get deleted on reboot and allow for faster builds. Provided that you have enough memory, of course.
