[Bug 1037626] [NEW] lxc-create wastes disk space by keeping installation debs

[Fajar A. Nugraha]

Public bug reported:

A default ubuntu container created using "lxc-create -n ubuntu -t
ubuntu" results in 386M space used on /var/lib/lxc/ubuntu/rootfs. A big
part of that space is used by cached debs on
/var/lib/lxc/ubuntu/rootfs/var/cache/apt/archives/ . Running "apt-get
clean" inside the container's rootfs reduced space usage to 242M.

The wasted space becomes even more apparent if the backing store
supports compression (e.g. zfsonlinux with gzip compression enabled). In
this case the original used space (after compression) was 196M, and was
reduced to 95M after the cached package files are removed, over 50% disk
space saving.

Suggestion: Modify lxc-ubuntu template to run "apt-get clean" inside the
container's rootfs as part of container creation process.

# lsb_release -rd
Description:	Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release:	12.04

# apt-cache policy lxc
lxc:
  Installed: 0.7.5-3ubuntu62
  Candidate: 0.7.5-3ubuntu62
  Version table:
 *** 0.7.5-3ubuntu62 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.7.5-3ubuntu52 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 Packages

Expected result: 
"lxc-create -t ubuntu" result in a container which uses disk space efficiently

Actual result: 
"lxc-create -t ubuntu" result in a container which uses more disk space than it should

** Affects: lxc (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Server Team, which is subscribed to lxc in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1037626

Title:
  lxc-create wastes disk space by keeping installation debs

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lxc/+bug/1037626/+subscriptions