On Mon, Dec 18, 2023 at 09:05:22AM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote: > > I would imagine that it's due to the FHS (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) > > which defines what the various directories on a "typical Linux system" are > > for. "man hier", for example, tells me that: > > > > * /var/cache - Data cached for programs. > > > > * /var/lib - Variable state information for programs. > > These leave open the question of what "data cached for the program" mean > and what "Variable state" means. > > Another way to look at it is in terms of what it implies. > For me, `/var/lib` data is data that is important to keep, e.g. data you > definitely don't want to delete/lose without a very good reason, whereas > `/var/cache` is data that's handy to have but not indispensable because > we can reconstruct it (or something close enough) from other sources, > which means that it doesn't have to be included in backups and it can > be deleted if it strikes your fancy (typically when you're in urgent need > of a tiny bit more disk space).
[...] Most probably you are right, especially since TLDP only says you can delete /var/cache's content safely across reboots [1]. The apt lists will be regenerated after doing an apt-get update, so... OTOH it'd be only a true-real-honestly-promised cache if every apt command did an apt-get update whenever it found that file missing. Cheers [1] https://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/var.html -- t
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