After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade , /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove. Not this time.
What can I do to reclaim somme room for my /var partition? I've never used flatpak intentionally or directly.
Michael Hennebry wrote:
After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade, /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=flatpaks+filling+up+var
Flatpak is its own thing, and as far as I know, it's not managed by dnf. I don't use it to be familar with how Fedora is doing it, but it has its own management commands.
The way flatpaks work, it *is* going to be a space-wasting thing. But if you really are not using any of them, you ought to be able to remove a lot of their files, if not all of them. And probably reconfigure dnf to ignore them.
Though the question will be, are you actually using some flatpak things without realising it?
On Fri, 17 Jan 2025, Tim via users wrote:
Michael Hennebry wrote:
After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade, /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove.
I did that and did not like what I found. All about how to live with it.
Flatpak is its own thing, and as far as I know, it's not managed by dnf. I don't use it to be familar with how Fedora is doing it, but it has its own management commands.
The way flatpaks work, it *is* going to be a space-wasting thing. But if you really are not using any of them, you ought to be able to remove a lot of their files, if not all of them. And probably reconfigure dnf to ignore them.
Though the question will be, are you actually using some flatpak things without realising it?
sudo flatpak list produces no putput. but flatpak is still using 4.0G in my /var partition. That is the only time I ever typed flatpak as a command.
Also sudo dnf repoquery --whatrequires flatpack [sudo] password for hennebry: Last metadata expiration check: 0:07:05 ago on Thu 16 Jan 2025 09:05:59 PM CST.
sudo dnf history flatpak | grep -i -e install -e upgrade 49 | upgrade | 2025-01-06 16:32 | C, E, I, O, U | 84 E< 1 | | 2024-04-14 17:56 | Install | 1952 >E
I do not know how to interpret the last two columns.
Hi Michael,
https://www.google.com/search?q=erasing+flatpak+cache
turned up this, at the top:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=387079
I wonder if the commands are the same in Fedora? (I have no flatpaks to play with, and don't want any.)
On 1/16/25 4:04 PM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade , /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove. Not this time.
What can I do to reclaim somme room for my /var partition? I've never used flatpak intentionally or directly.
flatpak is a dependency of gnome software, so you can't completely remove it. However, my entire /var/lib/flatpak is only 12MB. You can just delete any of the subdirectories in there. See if they come back later.
On Thu, 2025-01-16 at 22:59 -0800, Samuel Sieb wrote:
flatpak is a dependency of gnome software, so you can't completely remove it.
And if you don't use Gnome?
I have Mate, might explain why I don't appear to have any flatpak junk.
On 1/17/25 12:25 AM, Tim via users wrote:
On Thu, 2025-01-16 at 22:59 -0800, Samuel Sieb wrote:
flatpak is a dependency of gnome software, so you can't completely remove it.
And if you don't use Gnome?
Then you can probably remove it.
I have Mate, might explain why I don't appear to have any flatpak junk.
I use Gnome and I also don't have any flatpak junk.
Is there a command that will tell me what packages depend on flatpak? I realize I could do a remove command and see what else would be destroyed, but that means one bad key press and I could lose a bunch of my system. dnf does not seem to have a --dryrun option.
On 01/17/2025 04:22 PM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
Is there a command that will tell me what packages depend on flatpak? I realize I could do a remove command and see what else would be destroyed, but that means one bad key press and I could lose a bunch of my system. dnf does not seem to have a --dryrun option.
It may not, but it does have -n which answers all questions with no.
On Fri, 17 Jan 2025, Joe Zeff wrote:
On 01/17/2025 04:22 PM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
Is there a command that will tell me what packages depend on flatpak? I realize I could do a remove command and see what else would be destroyed, but that means one bad key press and I could lose a bunch of my system. dnf does not seem to have a --dryrun option.
It may not, but it does have -n which answers all questions with no.
I found this before your response: sudo rpm --erase --test flatpak [sudo] password for hennebry: error: Failed dependencies: flatpak is needed by (installed) fedora-flathub-remote-1-8.fc40.noarch flatpak(x86-64) >= 1.9.1 is needed by (installed) gnome-software-46.5-3.fc40.x86_64
/var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects contains 256 subdirectories named 00 through ff. Those directories have files with names that I suspect are mostly hash values. The suffixes are .file .dirtree .commit .commitmeta .
sudo flatpak list --app gives me nothing.
On 1/17/25 3:55 PM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
On Fri, 17 Jan 2025, Joe Zeff wrote:
On 01/17/2025 04:22 PM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
Is there a command that will tell me what packages depend on flatpak? I realize I could do a remove command and see what else would be destroyed, but that means one bad key press and I could lose a bunch of my system. dnf does not seem to have a --dryrun option.
It may not, but it does have -n which answers all questions with no.
I found this before your response: sudo rpm --erase --test flatpak [sudo] password for hennebry: error: Failed dependencies: flatpak is needed by (installed) fedora-flathub-remote-1-8.fc40.noarch flatpak(x86-64) >= 1.9.1 is needed by (installed) gnome- software-46.5-3.fc40.x86_64
That will only give you direct dependencies. It won't follow the tree past that like dnf will.
On 2025-01-16 18.41, Tim via users wrote:
Michael Hennebry wrote:
After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade, /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=flatpaks+filling+up+var
Flatpak is its own thing, and as far as I know, it's not managed by dnf. I don't use it to be familar with how Fedora is doing it, but it has its own management commands.
The way flatpaks work, it *is* going to be a space-wasting thing. But if you really are not using any of them, you ought to be able to remove a lot of their files, if not all of them. And probably reconfigure dnf to ignore them.
Though the question will be, are you actually using some flatpak things without realising it?
Some applications are moving to appimage or flatpack only. No other option unless Fedora volunteers take up the project. I have found this with one application that used to use appimage is moving to flatpack to save volunteer time and energy. For some applications, it is the wave of the future.
It needs to be planned for as many of us, me included, didn't have enough space if /var partition to account for this change.
I am now going to be rebuilding machines that have small /var partitions. At least with flatpack, I can use applications that are not in any Fedora repository.
Robin
On 2025-01-16 17.04, Michael Hennebry wrote:
After my most recent sudo dnf upgrade , /var/lib/flatpak/repo/objects is using up most of my /var partition. sudo dnf clean all did not help. Previously when my /var ran low, the problem was a directory named cache that I could just remove. Not this time.
What can I do to reclaim somme room for my /var partition? I've never used flatpak intentionally or directly.
This is an interesting discussion and some may need to know that there is Fedora Document that promotes using flatpak.
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/flatpak/
Quote
Flatpaks are a new way of deploying applications. If you have an application already packaged as a Fedora package, creating Flatpak offers a number of advantages:
The application can be safely updated without rebooting the system (you can update a package without rebooting your system using dnf from the command line, of course, but GNOME Software only offers updating applications as part of an offline system update.)
The application can seamlessly be installed on Fedora Silverblue
The Flatpak works across all supported Fedora versions - you don’t have to update trailing versions of Fedora for people to use the newest application version.
The Flatpak can be run by people running on other distributions
<< end Quote
FWIW, I have two machines, one uses a flatpack package as it is the only way and one doesn't. Both run KDE and F41.
/var/lib/flatpak is 2.7G and 21M respectively.
I also know that there is a var/lib/snapd that is at 4.5G on both machines. 150K and 5.6G respectively.
With Snap and Flatpak as the way forward, then I need to change my longtime disk partitioning scheme.
I think it will be full rebuild with F42 on all machines due to these changes to ensure there is enough disk space for the "future."
Robin
sudo flatpak repair did the trick. flatpak now takes up only 140 M.
On 1/19/25 11:00, Robin Laing wrote:
It needs to be planned for as many of us, me included, didn't have enough space if /var partition to account for this change.
I am now going to be rebuilding machines that have small /var partitions. At least with flatpack, I can use applications that are not in any Fedora repository.
Many of the servers and services, ie dnf, apt, postgres, mysql, apache (httpd), knot (dns), among others (except bind9 which for historical purposes uses /etc), have been using /var since I can remember. Adding flatpak to the mix makes sense. Snaps are there now, too, but I seem to recall them originally hanging out at /snap, at least on Ubuntu.
I have separate partitions for /home and /var. You could even go the LVM route which gives you the ability to grow the storage area relatively easily. I've never lost anything doing it that way.
:m
On 2025-01-19 22.21, Mike Wright wrote:
On 1/19/25 11:00, Robin Laing wrote:
It needs to be planned for as many of us, me included, didn't have enough space if /var partition to account for this change.
I am now going to be rebuilding machines that have small /var partitions. At least with flatpack, I can use applications that are not in any Fedora repository.
Many of the servers and services, ie dnf, apt, postgres, mysql, apache (httpd), knot (dns), among others (except bind9 which for historical purposes uses /etc), have been using /var since I can remember. Adding flatpak to the mix makes sense. Snaps are there now, too, but I seem to recall them originally hanging out at /snap, at least on Ubuntu.
I have separate partitions for /home and /var. You could even go the LVM route which gives you the ability to grow the storage area relatively easily. I've never lost anything doing it that way.
:m
I am not against flatpak or snap using /var. I agree with the standard and how it is implemented. All I meant to say is it is part of the future and what we did in the past needs to be updated to meet today's needs.
About to rebuild and give / and boot to a single small SSD.
Giving up on partitioning out /var. /home will be part of the same drive but each user will be on a different drive/partition and I have been doing that for a long time.
If I cannot get everything but home and swap on a single 260G drive, Linux has a problem.
Oh the days of a full graphical OS on a 40Gig drive.
I have lost data with LVM's and btrfs at different times in the past and have to regain my trust.
I do want to move to a COW FS in the future. I don't need to merge multiple devices. If it doesn't fit on one drive, then a new drive goes in. Old school here.
In some searches, I came across this that I find interesting with some recent discussions I have been involved in.
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/197643 (Updated August 6 2024 at 7:27 AM )
The Btrfs file system received numerous updates from the upstream in Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6.0 through 6.6 and 7.0 through 7.4. It will remain available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 6 and 7, however there will be no further updates to this feature, and it has been fully removed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.
This takes btrfs out of the running.
-
Joe Zeff -
Michael Hennebry -
Mike Wright -
Robin Laing -
Samuel Sieb -
Tim