Delete download/cached pkg files?

Question

In addition to a 20tb Solaris server, I also run Solaris 11 Express in a VM on my notebook for portable external ZFS storage (long story on how and why). As you might imagine, I'm interested in keeping the system virtual image (which is stored on my notebook drive) small.
After doing a pkg update which turned out to be pretty substantial, the on-disk size (within the VM not just the virtual container) grew a good deal.
So my question: Does the package manager store downloaded package files even though it doesn't need them any more? And if so, can they be safely deleted?
E.g., Debian Linux systems have "apt-get clean", which deletes the package cache. Any Solaris analogue? (I know Solaris isn't Linux. I mean I really, REALLY know! ;-)
Thanks in advance!
-Jim
+PS: In case this question gets derailed with debate about Solaris not being a suitable solution for portable external notebook-based ZFS storage, let me just completely agree! However, after about 100 hours of work (in total over a couple of years), I've developed a solution that is rock-solid, gets a reliable 20-30 MB/s throughput [not amazing but suprising given the concept], and doesn't get confused by changing device ports, IDs, etc. I push it hard every day, all day. The drives are velcro'ed to the notebook lid. Of course I first preferentially tried Linux and and Btrfs, then ZFS-FUSE, then BSD ZFS, but this is hands-down the best solution. But it wasn't easy. In fact it was really, really hard to get everything ironed out. But the only commercial alternative...doesn't exist. Yet. (But I'm working on it.)+

Answer 1

doublemeat wrote:
Thanks, that was just the answer I was looking for! Well except for the "you may have ruined your system" part. Fortunately I was able to restore from a previous snapshot.
I didn't want to do a full roll back so I copied everything under /var/pkg/cache from a previous snapshot, to the current. When I ran # pkg update, it complained about sources being wrong or something (the output was buggy, clearly missing lines, and didn't make sense). It recommended I run # pkg remove-source solaris. Which didn't seem very wise, but I did it anyway. Then played around with the GUI version, thinking that might get the package source set straight. Now when I run # pkg update, it eventually just comes back with No updates available for this image. Which is the right answer, so hopefully it's OK now!I have no idea what "remove-source" is; that's certainly never been a valid pkg(1) subcommand.
You also didn't restore all of the directory content you should have (I would have suggested all of /var/pkg).
As a result, I would suggest running "pkg verify" to determine the state of your system.
For systems that are running a version of Solaris 11 Express (only), you can safely remove any /var/pkg/publisher/*/file directories. (Just the 'file' directories and their contents.)
I've been having a tough time finding what old package/log/temp/dump files can be safely deleted. (So far this was the most helpful but not very complete: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/html/821-1451/sysresdiskuse-19.html.) As with many things Solaris - esp. recent versions - one can spend all day Googling and scouring, and still not find a satisfactory answer. Over a couple of years I've been compiling the answers I find and/or work out myself. Here's the section on what I believe are all and only files that can be safely deleted once and/or regularly:
The directory /var/pkg/cache and its contents may be safely removed, but it should not be necessary to manually remove it or its contents as it is managed automatically by the package system.
Most of the cache management issues you might have had should be resolved in Solaris 11 FCS (the general release).
flush-content-cache-on-sucess True is the default in in S11 FCS as well.
Further refinements to the cache management system will be made as time goes on.