38 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Reducing Bloat"
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date: 2021-07-18T17:12:00-05:00
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draft: true
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type: "post"
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---
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*Originally posted on [ArchWiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/User:Ta180m/Reducing_bloat)*
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If there's one thing that hardcore Linux users are ridiculously obsessed about, it's the vague and scary concept of *bloat*. You gotta keep package counts low, use WMs, and compile stuff. What exactly is bloat? Wikipedia offers a few definitions, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_bloat code bloat] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bloat software bloat], but we aren't going to worry to much about it. The important thing to remember is that bloat is bloated and must be disposed of.
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== Keeping package counts low ==
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Use {{ic|pacman -S ''package'' --asdeps}} when installing a package that you don't plan on keeping, so that the next time you [[Pacman/Tips_and_tricks#Removing_unused_packages_(orphans)|clean up orphans]], the package will be automatically removed in case you forget to do it manually.
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You can use {{ic|pacman -Qe {{!}} awk '{print $1}' {{!}} xargs -n1 pactree -cr}} to see which packages can have their [[Pacman#Installation_reason/installation reason]] changed to "as dependency". Note that this command depends on {{Pkg|pacman-contrib}}, which you can install with the method above. This will reduce the number of explicitly installed packages on your system.
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Instead of installing {{Pkg|base}}, you can install only the packages that you need. Be careful about breaking your system if you do this.
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You can find which of your packages have the most dependencies using {{ic|pacman -Qe {{!}} awk '{print $1}' {{!}} xargs -I {} -n1 bash -c "echo -n {}' '; pactree -c {} {{!}} wc -l" {{!}} sort -k2 -n}}. That should give you a good idea on what's most effective to uninstall to reduce your package count.
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== Don't use a DE ==
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See [[WM]] for a list of window managers you can use instead. Or even better, you can give up having a WM altogether and run your graphical apps from a TTY with {{ic|xinit ''application'' $* -- :1}}.
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Another alternative is to use the window manager from an existing DE. For example, to run KWin standalone, use
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$ export $(dbus-launch)
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$ export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
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$ kwin_wayland konsole --xwayland
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== Try not to install software outside of pacman ==
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Never run any other package manager (pip, npm, gem, etc) as root. Always {{ic|make install}} to local directories unless you do not have any other options. Prefer the [[AUR]] to [[snap]] or [[flatpak]], but make sure you always read the {{ic|PKGBUILD}}.
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