Solved freebsd-update leaves GB of files in /var/db/freebsd-update/

[drhowarddrfine]

This has built up over time and files listed in /var/db/freebsd-update/files/ are small .gz files now totalling over 1.1GB going back to early last year along with all the install files. What should be done?

 

[ljboiler]

There really needs to be a 'freebsd-update clean' command added to clean all that stuff up. I believe you can safely delete all that as long as you don't think you'll have the need to freebsd-update rollback.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

Yes. I mustn't have used good search terms at first cause I just now found where you asked that same question last year.

In addition to the files in /files/, what about the install.xxxxxx files? Can those be removed?

I do see where someone emptied the /var/db/freebsd-update/ directory entirely without issue. Is that OK to do?

 

[obsigna]

Some years ago, I asked a similar question in the forum, and I was told the same, that it can safely be emptied, if there is no need for freebsd-update rollback. I frequently run freebsd-update fetch and before issuing this command I do rm -r /var/db/freebsd-update/*. It is only 10 characters more than typing 'freebsd-update clean', and I never felt the need to put this into a script. The important note is, that in years, I had no single issue, by cleaning said directory frequently.