Comment 2 for bug 431993

    Is it possible to check for the size of what is being deleted ?

    I grasp the benefit of cleaning out /lib and ....
    But pretty much anything that ends up deleting 1GB or more of files
is almost certainly wrong no matter where it is.

    Also any directory that is normally empty after a clean install -
/usr/src or /usr/local/bin, should never be cleaned.

    Can I ask what the purpose of cleaning up directories is ?

    Doing a clean install overtop of an existing install is not
fundimentally different from a "repair" install - except that the record
of installed packages will be incorrect.

    Basically I have a problem with any broad strokes cleanup before
doing an install.
    If the user wanted a completely clean system they would have
reformatted the partition.
    Since they did not I think you must err heavily on the side of
preserving what is there.

    The exception would be files you know cause problems.

Evan Dandrea wrote:
> We should investigate using the Contents file to create a list of
> directories to hard code in clear_partitions for explicit deletion. The
> fallback plan is to continue whitelisting, adding /usr/src, /var/local,
> and /usr/local to the list.
>
> (09:40:53 PM) cjwatson: maybe it would be worth going through the Contents file and looking for directories in which we actually ship files, and nuking those
> (09:41:07 PM) cjwatson: though the cross-compiler directories would be inconvenient
> (09:44:44 PM) evand: I'm afraid of doing explicit deletion as if we ever ship a new directory and forget to upload clear_partitions, bad things happen
> (09:44:52 PM) evand: err, well, can happen
> (09:56:51 PM) cjwatson: bad things either way though
> (09:57:07 PM) cjwatson: dunno - FHS directories except src are probably safe, at least
>
>

--
Dave Lynch DLA Systems
Software Development: Embedded Linux
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