NAME¶
localepurge - reclaim disk space removing unneeded localizations
SYNOPSIS¶
localepurge
DESCRIPTION¶
localepurge is a small script to recover disk space wasted for unneeded
locale files and localized man pages. It will be automagically invoked by
dpkg upon completion of any
apt installation run. You have to
define the locale directory names you want to keep from removal after each
apt installation run in the
/etc/locale.nopurge configuration
file. Unless
localepurge has been adequately configured, the system's
localization files won't be touched at all.
The contents of following directories will be affected from removals:
- /usr/share/doc/kde/HTML
- /usr/share/gnome/help
- /usr/share/locale
- /usr/share/man
- /usr/share/omf
The localization files you actually need and which you want to be preserved on
your system can be easily configured by running the following command:
dpkg-reconfigure localepurge
OPTIONS¶
The configurable options consist of toggling verbose output, reporting a summary
of freed space, and deletion of localized manual pages in addition to locale
files. All actions are specified in the
/etc/locale.nopurge
configuration file.
For detailed debugging the commandline switch
-debug or just a short
-d instead are available for usage. For verbose output the commandline
switch
-verbose or just a short
-v can be added.
A Word of CAUTION¶
Please note, that
this tool is a hack
which is not integrated with
Debian's package management system and therefore
is not meant for the faint of heart. Responsibility for its usage and possible
breakage of your system therefore lies in the sysadmin's (your) hands.
Please definitely do abstain from reporting any bugs blaming localepurge if
you break your system by using it. If you don't know what you are doing
and can't handle any resulting breakage on your own then please simply don't
use it.
All locale directories containing a subdirectory named LC_MESSAGES which are
either commented out or not even listed at all in
/etc/locale.nopurge
will be irreversibly deleted. The only way to reinstall any lost locales is a
complete reinstallation of all the Debian packages containing them. See
/usr/share/doc/localepurge/reinstall_debs.sh for a recipe.
Alternatively you can reconfigure it with
dpkg-reconfigure(8) to
prevent locale files from being purged during subsequent runs of apt.
SOLVING PROBLEMS caused by localepurge¶
This program does interfere with the Debian package management and does provoke
strange, but usually harmless, behaviour of programs related with
apt/dpkg like
dpkg-repack(1), debsums(1),
reportbug(1), etc. If you need to have any package in its full
integrity so that e.g. the formerly mentioned programs work as designed by its
author and as expected by you, simply deinstall
localepurge temporarily
without purging its configuration and reinstall the packages you need in their
fully integral state. When you are done with what you needed the integral
packages for simply reinstall
localepurge again.
FILES¶
/etc/locale.nopurge
SEE ALSO¶
Administrators of systems with short disk space should have a look at both the
deborphan and
debfoster packages. Especially
debfoster
can work wonders for your scarce disk space!
deborphan(1)
debfoster(8)
dpkg-reconfigure(8)
debconf(8)
/usr/share/doc/localepurge/README.debian
/usr/share/doc/localepurge/reinstall_debs.sh
AUTHOR¶
localepurge and its accompanying manual page was written for the
Debian GNU/Linux system by Paul Seelig
<pseelig@debian.org> with major contributions from Gustavo Noronha Silva
<kov@debian.org> and Francesco Potortì. The author sincerely
hopes that some day further development of Debian's great package management
system will make
localepurge fully obsolete.