Clean up tool

[hirte_7]

Hi,

I noticed that when I de-install a program not everything is removed although I can not browse or see where those files are (or I don't know hoe to). For example when installing the gpr-calendar and add calendars those settings stay on the device when de-install and afterwards install and start the application again - therefore I guess that over time alot of unused files are remaining in the memory.
A tool to clean up those unused stuff would be great. Is there already something like this?

Thanks

[dkm365]

For apt-based software management systems, including the n810, from a command line you can run two commands:

(1) apt-get clean

(2) apt-get autoclean

The first removes the left behind files other than lock files. The second removes package files that can no longer be downloaded (because you have a newer versions installed, for instance).

You can check out the apt-get man page for more apt goodness here:

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html

You will see your /var directory shrink substantially using these, usually.

Edit: oops, forgot to mention that you'll need root access to get permission to the /var directories to do this.

[iamthewalrus]

I think you mean the per-user settings. They are in /home/user/.<name of application>. To delete settings of a certain app, for example one called 'some-app' do the following:

- Open xterm. By default you are in /home/user/
- To see all folders and files in there type: ls -al
- Suppose you see the folder ".some-app" in the results. Remove it and its contents with rm -rf .some-app
or back it up with mv .some-app .some-app-backup

The application files themselves (not the per-user settings) should normally be removed automatically if you install and uninstall using the application manager. Only if you install using .deb files copies of packages remain. In that case you need to use apt-get clean and apt-get autoclean to get rid of them, or use apt-get remove --purge <name of app to be uninstalled> to uninstall the app and delete the package copies.

[hirte_7]

Thanks for those hints. My Unix days are long time back. Could you please let me know how I become root? Thanks.

[dkm365]

Thanks for those hints. My Unix days are long time back. Could you please let me know how I become root? Thanks.
That's opening a can of worms, although you'd expect it to be easy being a linux system and all (unfortunately it isn't as simple as typing su & a password at the command prompt :(). There are several ways , and quite a bit of discussion as to which is easiest, which is best, etc. The main three methods, to the best of my knowledge (although I'm sure we'll hear about it if I'm wrong), are installing 'becomeroot', installing 'easyroot', or using openssh. There are others (e.g., r&d mode), but those seem to be the most often mentioned.

I've been inclined to go with one of the first two options. But some will swear by the openssh method. If you search the forums for these keywords, you'll see where to get the packages and what to do once you get them. I'd look at them and see which one looks easiest for you to understand and get working quickly and go with that.