3. The procedure
3.1 Removing the Kernel Sources
The kernel sources take up more than 20 Mb, and you may want to remove them. If so, I suggest that you compile a new kernel that is tailored to your machine once and for all, then get rid of the sources. Take care, though.
I don't recommend that you remove the kernel sources unless you are sure that your machine is properly configured. Besides, you need the kernel #includes to compile C programs. Think twice!
If you do decide so, do not remove the include/linux tree unless you know you'll never compile applications on your machine.
3.2 Pruning Out Applications
Now, decide which applications you really need. Some may prove
redundant: for instance, are you sure you can't live without emacs
? You
could use jed
instead.
It's up to you to decide what you want to keep. Some general points:
-
gcc
is a fairly large package. It's needed to recompile the kernel and all the applications for which there are no pre--built Linux binaries. It's also needed, of course, if you write your own C or Fortran (withf2c
org77
) programs; consider your needs before removing it. Other compilers likelcc
are fine, but not up togcc
level. I suggest that you keep it; - X11 is awfully large, but it's a nice thing to have. If you decide
you can't give it up, at least try to make do with as little as necessary:
only the right X server, one simple window manager, only one
xterm
, no 100 dpi fonts, and so on; - TeX and accompanying packages are very large indeed. Giving up LaTeX
and sticking to plain TeX saves a lot of space; giving up X11 previewers
like
xdvi
andghostview
is possible if you usedvitty
,dvivga
and some such. Eliminating the need for X11 dviware could even make X11 redundant; - games are never ``necessary''.
3.3 Stripping Binaries
Let's start reducing the size of binaries. Move to /usr/bin and issue the command
machine:/usr/bin# strip *
which will do away with symbols embedded in binaries. Repeat this
step in /usr/X11R6/bin/ and other directories containing
executables you may have (don't forget to locate TeX's and gcc
's
binaries), but do not run it under /sbin,
/bin, or /usr/sbin/ if you value your installation!
3.4 Compressing with upx
First, install upx
and read its documentation. Then go to
/usr/bin and run it with the command upx *
; it will
compress all executables, including suid ones (tcx
wouldn't). Repeat
this step in other directories as seen above.
Remember to compress the executables whenever you install a new package!
3.5 Gzipping around
There are lots of other files that can be compressed once and for all. Let's start with /usr/doc/; move to this directory and issue the command
machine:/usr/doc# find . -type f -exec gzip -9 {} \; 2> /dev/null
Remember to compress the docs whenever you install a new package!
Repeat this step in the directory containing the documentation for TeX (on my system, /usr/lib/texmf/texmf/doc/. If you're really sure, remove these directories altogether.
Now, install zlibc
and compile it. If your system is like mine, the
compilation process will abort complaining about a missing (static) libc.
Never mind; you'll find a file called uncompress.o
that is what's
needed. Move it to /usr/local/lib/ and add this line to your
/etc/profile:
export LD_ELF_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/uncompress.o
Now, you can compress with gzip
not only documentation, but also data
files: the applications that use them will be able to use them nonetheless.
In theory, the trick should work with most applications, but in practice
your degree of success may vary. Mine was rather unimpressive.
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