/usr Directory

[sroberts82]

Hi,
I was just wondering if the usr directory is used just for data and applications etc. If I was to delete its contents would the system still boot? If not what are the relevant files in it? I basically want to strip my system down to the bare minimum. Thanks in advance,
Stephen

 

[kHz]

Will it boot?

NO

 

[sroberts82]

What I was wondering was what are the files and directories specifically needed to boot.

 

[KenCunningham]

Best advice - don't touch it!!

 

[sroberts82]

But I have to clear it up, I just need to know where the system files are kept

 

[Mike042]

It is a popular misconception that /usr has something to do with 'user' information/data (abbreviated by Unix gurus of yesteryear to save typing, along with ls instead of list). However usr is actually an acronym which stands for Unix System Resources. So I would agree with all of the above people and say "don't touch it".
What you might try to clear it up, is to load the same version of the Operating System, to the same patch level and with the same applications on a Test Machine and then compare the /usr on each machine. Even so, before deleting files, I would want to find out where they came from and are they still in use.

I hope that helps.

Mike

 

[kHz]

This is a list of /usr on my workstation:
4lib backups j2se net pub tmp
5bin bin java news sadm ucb
X ccs jdk oasys sbin ucbinclude
X11 demo kernel old sfw ucblib
X11R6 dict kvm openwin share vmsys
adm dt lib perl5 snadm xpg4
apache games local platform spool xpg6
appserver gnome mail preserve src
aset include man proc staroffice7


Of all the directories above, the only ones that I would remove are: games, apache, demo, dict, appserver, staroffice7.

And I wouldn't just delete them, but I would find the packages first and remove the packages, then remove the directories.

Why do you have to clean /usr?