(Nevermind) specific files I can delete

[denoobifyme]

Yesterday, a message popped up advising me that "this computer only has 143Mb of memory available." One of the handiest warning dialog buttons ever offered to let me Examine the situation, and launched Disk Usage Analyzer. I clicked on one of the bigger hogs.

/var/archives 468M

What are these archives of? The var directory is for variable files, ones frequently written to and changed. Usually archives are for deep storage. Can I delete this file or move it offsite without any disruptions in my daily computing?

Are there other such files I can delete or ship? More importantly, are there non-obvious directories I should NEVER take out? I've also run bleachbit/root, and a couple of things I checked warned me I could disrupt my system, so I unchecked them. Forum searches haven't provided me with as much specifics as I'd like.

[YouCanToo]

Yesterday, a message popped up advising me that "this computer only has 143Mb of memory available." One of the handiest warning dialog buttons ever offered to let me Examine the situation, and launched Disk Usage Analyzer. I clicked on one of the bigger hogs.

/var/archives 468M

What are these archives of?

Did you go look and see what was in the directory? Would not that be intuitive to do. On my 2010 system there is no /var/archives folder.

 The var directory is for variable files, ones frequently written to and changed. Usually archives are for deep storage. Can I delete this file or move it offsite without any disruptions in my daily computing?

Are there other such files I can delete or ship? More importantly, are there non-obvious directories I should NEVER take out? I've also run bleachbit/root, and a couple of things I checked warned me I could disrupt my system, so I unchecked them. Forum searches haven't provided me with as much specifics as I'd like.

[denoobifyme]

Thank you for your reply, YouCanToo. I no longer have an archives file in either /var directory. My 143Mb of available space has gone up to over 2gigs. Variable indeed. I went through Synaptic Installed line by line and deleted files I was pretty sure were safe, such as printer drivers for models and even brands I don't have. Programs I will never use, such as gimp, are gone as well. I guess in the process of deleting these they took the phantom archives directory with it.

[menotu]

Same here, no /var/archives folder that I can see.

My initial thought was that it was referring to "ram memory" and not disk space, but then it pointed you to the /var folder and launched Disk Analyzer.

Anyway, all's well now