[ubuntu-za] (THANKS) ARE .DEB FILES NECESSARY?

[vincent]

On Friday 02 January 2009 11:25:01 CM Schoonbee wrote:
> James Cuénod wrote:
> >> Possibly a 'Master" backup disk kept in a safe place & added to from
> >> time to
> >> time might be the answer?
> >
> > Bearing in mind, of course, that there are regular updates to almost
> > everything so what I do is just leave the cache and whenever I feel the
> > need to format (an old M$ habit) I back it up and restore it. That way
> > what needs to be downloaded when I update is downloaded but what I've got
> > cached that can be used is not. Of course my file storage habits mean
> > that every now and then I completely lose that stuff and this allows me
> > to not keep old outdated packages... It all works wonderfully. :D
> >
> > Happy new year all.
>
> I also find it useful to keep the downloaded update deb packages.  But
> especially for a LTS release like 8.04, these can pile up.  When you
> download an update for a particular package, you no longer need any
> previous updates that were downloaded for that package.   Harddrive
> space is no problem but I often copy the debs on to a USB stick to
> update other computers.  So when the cache starts becoming too unwieldy
> for my USB stick I just clean out the old (no longer needed) packages
> using the command:
> sudo apt-get autoclean
>
> Do NOT use the different command
> sudo apt-get clean
> unless you want to clean out ALL the debs in your cache.

James,

Thanks for your interesting input on filing, it makes sense. I also liked your 
method of getting rid of old files!:D

Thanks CM for the advice on sudo clean vs autoclean, between you & James, I 
think you've saved me a lot of unecessary time on the 'net having to "double" 
download.

Take Care
Vincent