Deleting Packages

[Brian Bobowski]

Gerard Seibert wrote:

> I have a large number of files in the '/usr/ports/packages/All' 
> directory. Since I could use the disk space that they are taking up, I 
> wonder if it is permissible to just delete them. I  clean out the 
> '/usr/ports/distfiles' directory on a regular schedule without incident.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
>
> Gerard Seibert
> gerard-seibert at rcn.com
>
> Murphy's Seventh Law: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad 
> to worse.
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to 
> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>
My first instinct would be that the packages directory is for binary, 
precompiled packages what the distfiles directory is for source 
tarballs, and can be regularly cleaned.

However, I didn't see a reference to it un /usr/ports/README, whereas it 
did advise me that distfiles can be periodically cleaned without ill effect.

The FreeBSD 5.1 machine I presently have running doesn't even have a 
/usr/ports/packages directory. Since I install pretty much everything 
from the port when I can, and nothing huge was made(except PHP, which I 
know was compiled anyway), this would still fit with my theory. Is there 
a README file in your /usr/ports/packages directory? Also, glance at 
some of the files and see if they look like distribution packages.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

-BB