when I installed debian 12.7 I created a separated /var directory, along other 2 separated directories (names forgotten).
I also use flatpak and this program is installed in this directory. Executing ‘flatpack update’ I discovered this directory is 95% full, meaning I cannot update anything, because /var is 95% full (only 400 MiB free)
Ideas to solve this?
The safest method, if your /home has enough space, is to use it instead of /var for (some) Flatpak installs. You can force any Flatpak install to go to /home by adding
--user
to the command.If you look at the output of
flatpak list
it will tell you which package is installed in user home dir and which in system (/var). You can also show the size of each package withflatpak list --columns=name,application,version,size,installation
.I don’t think you can move installed apps directly between system/user like Steam can (Flatpak is REALLY overdue for a good package manager) but you can uninstall apps from system, then run
flatpak remove --unused
, then install them again with--user
.Please note that apps installed with
--user
are only seen by the user that installed them. Also you’ll have to cleanup separately for system and user(s) in the future (flatpak remove --unused
for system, thenflatpak remove --unused --user
for each user).First you have to make a new --user remote. Then you can list your current stuff and install it on the --user side one package at a time, (with --no-pull so it sucks the existing install). Then, you delete the --system copy of packages.
Great trick, I had no idea Flatpak can use an existing install as a repo!