How does one debloat savefile? fossa64

[galen]

I've tied diskspace viewer.
sweeper
bleachbit 3
yet my savefile space keeps bloating.
Any docs or tips on purging cruft?

[Phoenix]

Do you mean the savefile itself is expanding, or the contents inside?
Use GDMap to get an examination of where the storage space is going at /initrd/pup_ro1 or /initrd/pup_rw (It depends on some boot configuration so try both)

[galen]

sorry I didnt mention savefile is ext4 on a fat32 USB
[maxed out at 4GB]

Inside the file the savespace is limited, it bloats up on something

[mikewalsh]

@galen :-

Mm. This is, of course, why in general most of us now prefer the save-folder. Since it's just a normal directory, it expands/contracts in size up to whatever maximum size the partitiop itself is. None of this business of having to manually re-size it.

One trick some use is to locate the 'save' in a different location with more space, then sym-link it into position. You can't do this with anything formatted to FAT32, 'cos FAT32 doesn't support sym-links.......and as you're obviously aware, the 'save' on a FAT32 partition MUST be a save-file - not save-folder - and you're limited to that maximum file-size of just 4GB.

In the early days of Puppy, everything was a lot smaller. Less disk space, less RAM, so it was important to keep Puppy applications as small as possible. Time moves on, and most of us now run hardware we could only have dreamed of 20 years ago. Far bigger drives, a lot more RAM, and CPUs that'll run rings around the sort of processors computers used to come with.

A thought. How is your browser cache set up? Does your browser save into /root/.cache, by any chance? I ask, because this fills up like crazy with the way modern browsers & websites work these days. A good way round this is to run one of the portable browsers we've developed; the entire thing can be located outside the 'save', say, at /mnt/home, and the cache is all self-contained within the portable's directory.

Just an idea. Up to you, of course.......and this may not BE your issue, anyway.

Mike.

[bigpup]

This is an old topic, but the info in it still works for keeping the save file small and not used so much.
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... d6#p468769
Not sure if links in it still work.

The save file has a copy of the normal operating file system in it.
Anything that is done to change what is in the normal operating file system.
The change is actually stored in the file system inside the save.

The save is going to hold anything that is changed or added to the normal operating file system.

About the only thing that needs to be in the save is setting changes, added software, and any changes you actually made to the normal operating file system.

But a lot of stuff can be placed outside of the save.
documents
any downloads
pictures
videos
SFS packaged programs
etc......
Anything that is not getting installed into the operating system.

Best location outside of the save is /mnt/home

If you want to you can navigate to /mnt/home and make different directories to put stuff in.
SFS packages usually load and unload best by just putting them in /mnt/home

Web browser cache settings are the main user of space in the save.
So adjust their size, set them to delete contents on browser shutdown, etc.......

If you installed programs you no longer use.
Uninstall them to free up space in the save.

Example:
You are using a web browser to download a program pet or deb package.
Set it to ask you where to download it.
Tell it to download to /mnt/home
Or if you made a downloads directory in /mnt/home
Tell it to put the download in that directory /mnt/home/downloads

[galen]

This is an old topic, but the info in it still works for keeping the save file small and not used so much.
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... d6#p468769
Not sure if links in it still work.

The save file has a copy of the normal operating file system in it.
Anything that is done to change what is in the normal operating file system.
The change is actually stored in the file system insi

Thanksde the save.

The save is going to hold anything that is changed or added to the normal operating file system.

About the only thing that needs to be in the save is setting changes, added software, and any changes you actually made to the normal operating file system.

But a lot of stuff can be placed outside of the save.
documents
any downloads
pictures
videos
SFS packaged programs
etc......
Anything that is not getting installed into the operating system.

Best location outside of the save is /mnt/home

If you want to you can navigate to /mnt/home and make different directories to put stuff in.
SFS packages usually load and unload best by just putting them in /mnt/home

Web browser cache settings are the main user of space in the save.
So adjust their size, set them to delete contents on browser shutdown, etc.......

If you installed programs you no longer use.
Uninstall them to free up space in the save.

Example:
You are using a web browser to download a program pet or deb package.
Set it to ask you where to download it.
Tell it to download to /mnt/home
Or if you made a downloads directory in /mnt/home
Tell it to put the download in that directory /mnt/home/downloads

Thanks I've been watching the cache and using gdmap, along with sweeper and bleachbit
Reboots do clear some space.
Hoping lack if space doesn't GI critical