On Thu, 17 Mar 2016 10:22:36 -0400 (EDT)
"D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh(a)mimosa.com> wrote:
On my Fedora 23
systems, /var/cache/PackageKit/metadata/updates/packages is full
of .rpm files. For example, 2.7G on my desktop.
/var/cache/PackageKit/metadata/fedora/packages has some too.
"sudo dnf clean packages" doesn't seem to change this. What does it
change?
The dnf package storage is cleared. PackageKit is independent of
dnf.
What is the purpose of this directory of RPMs?
Saved in case of problems.
Why is it considered metadata?
The more obvious place would be /var/cache/PackageKit/downloads/
Why isn't this used?
You'd have to ask the PackageKit devs.
Is there a way of transplanting the RPMs to another system so that
downloading could be avoided? I have half a dozen fedora systems and
it seems a waste to download each update for each system.
rsync them into /var/cache/dnf/[hashed directory entry]/packages/ on the
other systems. Then run dnf upgrade. It will reuse the local
packages. You might have to set dnf to keep rpms in /etc/dnf/dnf.conf,
and manually run dnf clean packages after the update.
What is the proper way of deleting these RPMs to free up the space?
I
ask because on some machines (but not all) the space is burdensome.
There is a setting in the file
/etc/PackageKit/PackageKit.conf
# Keep the packages after they have been downloaded
#KeepCache=false
Remove, as root, the hash mark on this configuration option, and
packages won't be kept.