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Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

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Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#11

Post by zenoprax »

I installed `paccache` which can automate package cleanup. I configured it to retain only the latest version and only for about a week. Everytime I update I'm notified of how much space had been freed. I don't understand why the default is to retain everything. The likelihood that I need to perform rollbacks/reinstalls without internet access is very low.

Beyond that: `pacman -Rsnc` is my "yeet" command. Check the dependent packages carefully. Safer to run this regularly to avoid a build up.

I use `paru` for an AUR helper. Cache cleared manually but could probably be automated too.

I have been running the same install for a couple years and despite my early Linux ignorance and complete abuse of my desktop by experimenting with everything I've only ever had one failed Grub boot that wasn't my own fault.

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#12

Post by mksrew »

Mine is running just fine since 2022-03-10 (just checked with `btrfs subvol show /home`).

The only maintenance I do is for btrfs, which I learned the hard way one year after running the system without caring.

It's just a regular `btrfs balance` to ensure the system never run out of metadata space.

Other than that, just `pacman -Syu` and `flatpak update` whenever I feel like I want to.

I rarely clean Pacman's cache because I've been through some cases that I needed to downgrade some packages, and I always uninstall with `pacman -Rs`, so no leftover dependencies. And anything that `paru` installs as build dependencies, I uninstall right after.

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#15

Post by bediger4000 »

nvy wrote: post #6

>been a happy Arch Linux user for many years >how long have you managed to keep your system running smoothly without needing to reinstall? I'm baffled as to how someone could be a happy user of a system that requires regular reinstalls to be usable/stable. Is it that installing Arch is itself a hobby for some people?

I've used Arch for about 10 years now, and I haven't done a reinstall ever. I've moved to new hardware (laptops and servers) several times over the years, so I've done fresh installs on the new hardware. Does that count?

> a system that requires regular reinstalls to be usable/stable.

Windows 95, 98 and XP were like that, no? Those have been the standard business operating system over the years.

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#16

Post by pritambaral »

nvy wrote: post #6

>been a happy Arch Linux user for many years >how long have you managed to keep your system running smoothly without needing to reinstall? I'm baffled as to how someone could be a happy user of a system that requires regular reinstalls to be usable/stable. Is it that installing Arch is itself a hobby for some people?

I installed Arch once, back in 2012, on my first laptop, which was the only computer I had back then.

When that laptop died I swapped the HDD into a loaner from a friend, only to swap it into a new laptop I bought a few months later.

When I grew tired of the HDD's speed, and could afford to, I bought a SATA SSD and cloned the HDD onto it.

When I upgraded to a more powerful laptop a few years ago, it didn't come with a SATA bay, so I cloned the SSD from my old laptop onto the NVMe SSD of the new one. Today, I run both laptops; the old one as a home server and backup and the new one as my main computer. Both run Arch on Wayland and KDE 6. The same Arch I installed back in 2012 with KDE 3.

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#17

Post by cranberryturkey »

basemi wrote: post #7
cranberryturkey wrote: post #2

I just do `yay -Syu` every week or so. What does `-Qtd` do?

From [0]: > To list all packages no longer required as dependencies (orphans): $ pacman -Qdt [0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman

That just lists them, how do you remove them?

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#18

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

freedomben wrote: post #5

It won't be a popular answer, but the truth is nuke and pave every so often. The problem isn't Arch itself, the problem is that I like to try new things pretty regularly, and occasionally install junk that I don't want long-term, but that I forget to clean up. Quite a few years back I just started a bash script that stays in my dot files repo, that has all the base packages and configuration in it that I need for a n…

In fairness, that's not an issue with the OS - you can maintain a single install for a long time (see other comments in this thread running a continuous Arch system for over a decade), but equally nothing prevents you from accumulating mutations until it's easier to reinstall the whole thing, and Arch is probably more popular with folks who are inclined to tinker:) And to be clear, I say that without judgement - I've gotten better at not messing up my system over time, and for that matter knowing when something is likely to break things and so test in a VM or whatever, but a lot of my knowledge of how things work comes from having done terrible things to poor innocent machines. Of course, I've always been an incorrigible distro-hopper, so I always just took that as part of the lifecycle: Install shiny new OS, kick the tires, use it for a while, slowly accumulate hacks until the thing is slightly broken, then wipe and install the new shiny OS. It's just that after enough years, it takes longer and longer for it to get slightly broken:)

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#19

Post by pritambaral »

Been using an install from 2012. Cloned every time I moved laptops or internal storage drives. Two surviving clones, one main laptop and older laptop as home server and backup.

Haven't had to do much, really. Just regular package updates (including AUR ones) and cleanup of stale packages. The main laptop gets updates applied frequently, but the backup only once every six months / a year, except security updates (e.g., ssh, OpenSSL, the recent xz backdoor was a no-op because I hadn't ever updated the backup to a vulnerable version). Then there was the KDE 6 release recently.

Every once in a while I go through the list of every package installed and see if I should remove any. This is a no-op for most packages, since they are usually mandatory dependencies of another package, but there's always some packages I'd installed for some limited purpose that no longer applies.

I've cleaned up dead config files a few times. Especially around KDE major version updates. Not that it took up too much space or broke anything; just that I didn't want those files around.

I've kept around a bootable USB key for emergencies, but now that I think about it, I'm surprised I've never had to use it for a system rescue. There was that one time I changed my password and promptly forgot the new one. But it's been such a long time since I've used it.

Re: Ask HN: Arch Users – What is your long-term system maintenance routine?

#20

Post by 7839284023 »

zenoprax wrote: post #11

I installed `paccache` which can automate package cleanup. I configured it to retain only the latest version and only for about a week. Everytime I update I'm notified of how much space had been freed. I don't understand why the default is to retain everything. The likelihood that I need to perform rollbacks/reinstalls without internet access is very low. Beyond that: `pacman -Rsnc` is my "yeet" command. Check the de…

Ah, I See You're a Man of Culture As Well

This is in my config.fish file:

  abbr -- yeet 'yay -Rns'
  abbr -- gib 'yay -S'
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