guix-gc

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Commit fe8ff02 adds a ‘guix-gc’ command to invoke the GC, similar to
part of the ‘nix-store’ command.  Below is a copy of the manual.

Comments welcome!

Ludo’.


Packages that are installed but not used may be "garbage-collected".
The `guix-gc' command allows users to explicitly run the garbage
collector to reclaim space from the `/nix/store' directory.

   The garbage collector has a set of known "roots": any file under
`/nix/store' reachable from a root is considered "live" and cannot be
deleted; any other file is considered "dead" and may be deleted.  The
set of garbage collector roots includes default user profiles, and may
be augmented with `guix-build --root', for example (*note Invoking
guix-build::).

   The `guix-gc' command has three mode of operations: it can be used
to garbage-collect any dead files (the default), to delete specific
files (the `--delete' option), or to print garbage-collector
information.  The available options are listed below:

`--collect-garbage[=MIN]'
`-C [MIN]'
     Collect garbage--i.e., unreachable `/nix/store' files and
     sub-directories.  This is the default operation when no option is
     specified.

     When MIN is given, stop once MIN bytes have been collected.  MIN
     may be a number of bytes, or it may include a unit as a suffix,
     such as `MiB' for mebibytes and `GB' for gigabytes.

     When MIN is omitted, collect as much garbage as possible.

`--delete'
`-d'
     Attempt to delete all the store files and directories specified as
     arguments.  This fails if some of the files are not in the store,
     or if they are still live.

`--list-dead'
     Show the list of dead files and directories still present in the
     store--i.e., files and directories no longer reachable from any
     root.

`--list-live'
     Show the list of live store files and directories.