If you’re like me, you have Linux systems that have been in continuous operation for years. To be sure, you’ve probably rebooted innumerable times, performed system upgrades, replaced hard drives, and so on, but certain key directories might have been created many years ago. In fact, this is one of Linux’s strong points: the operating system is robust enough that it can work for years on end without a fresh re-installation.
The trouble with this longevity is that the operating system tends to collect junk, such as temporary files that hang around like perpetual unwanted house guests, log files that grow bigger than dinosaurs, packages that you installed and then never used, and so on.
This month’s column is dedicated to cleaning the clutter from your computer. The techniques shown apply to system files; keeping your home directory clean is a chore left to you.
Why Clean House?
You might wonder, though, what the fuss is about. Who cares if your /tmp directory has a few files that were created when Bill Clinton was President, or if you’ve got so many fonts installed that a complete printed set of font samples would be thicker than an unabridged dictionary? After all, with modern hard disks routinely topping 100 GB, you don’t need to worry about disk space, right?
In fact, excesses can cause a number of problems:
*Wasted disk space. Even with huge hard disks, wasted disk space can be a problem, particularly if the space…
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