how to change dpkg installation directory?

[Tommy Trussell]

On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 8:34 AM, Bram Kuijper<a.l.w.kuijper at rug.nl> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I want to change the default directory into which dpkg installs my
> applications, since I have too little space on my rootdisk. However, I
> changed the necessary configuration in /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg, but now
> nothing will install anymore. What should I do?

I'm not sure how to fix the problem you caused, but it's MUCH easier
to fix the problem using symbolic links. Look at the "space hogs" on
your root disk and move them to another volume, then use a symbolic
link to point to them in the other place while they maintain the same
location in your file system. Of course you are concerned about
applications but unless your root disk is tiny the applications are
not usually the problem, but files that grow large during normal
operation, such as in /var

Others with more proper training may be able to fill in the details,
but I believe there are several reasons you probably don't want to
mess with the paths to applications -- there may be lots of cleanup to
do with little benefit. OH and major changes like moving big parts of
your filesystem tree might be safest if done in single-user mode (at
the console, using the command-line interface).