Removing unnecessary parts of FreeBSD

[j4ck]

Hi

I'm trying to reduce my FreeBSD image file volume as light as possible. What do you think I can remove from my FreeBSD server without damaging necessary parts?

 

[fonz]

What do you think I can remove from my FreeBSD server without damaging necessary parts?

You might want to start by revealing what kind of server we're talking about.

• If you are ok with using binary packages, you can get rid of the ports tree.
• You could build a custom kernel with only the modules you need (GENERIC supports a wide variety of hardware, most of which you won't have).
• You could remove the man(1) pages if you're sure you don't need them, but I doubt that would free up enough space to be worth it.
• You can probably do without certain parts of the source code. In fact, if you don't expect to be compiling the kernel and/or world at all, you can probably get rid of the source code altogether.
• If you're building from ports, be sure to make clean and to remove distfiles from time to time.

Generally speaking, things are in the base system for a reason

 

[kpa]

You might want to start by revealing what kind of server we're talking about.

Generally speaking, things are in the base system for a reason

With few exceptions. CVS and RCS no longer belong in the base system since FreeBSD has fully moved to SVN now and CVS and RCS are available as ports. Then there's support for some network protocols that almost nobody really uses now, ATM (may be used on embedded devices, ADSL modems I think) and IPX.

 

[fonz]

CVS and RCS no longer belong in the base system

Good shout. Do you happen to know when these are scheduled for removal from base? If I had to hazard a guess I'd expect them to be gone (i.e. moved from base to ports) when 10.0-RELEASE comes out.

Then there's support for some network protocols that almost nobody really uses now, ATM (may be used on embedded devices, ADSL modems I think) and IPX.

However, removing CVS, RCS, IPX and ATM appears to be saving less than a megabyte (source not included). Hardly spectacular

 

[kpa]

Good shout. Do you happen to know when these are scheduled for removal from base? If I had to hazard a guess I'd expect them to be gone (i.e. moved from base to ports) when 10.0-RELEASE comes out.

However, removing CVS, RCS, IPX and ATM appears to be saving less than a megabyte (source not included). Hardly spectacular

I have no idea if they are going to be removed, I hope so. Savings in space taken by those components is sure negligble, however the time needed to keep all those little bits and pieces working trough all the updates in the base system is not.