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After setting up a new Ubuntu virtual machine guest, I like to take a disk snapshot so that I can restore to a working state in case I break something later on. I'd like to avoid snapshotting unnecessary files, so I always run apt-get clean beforehand.

What else might I be interested in cleaning up before taking the snapshot?

ændrük
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  • What are you using the VM for? Does it have a GUI? If yes, are you using it for internet browsing? – Lekensteyn Jun 07 '11 at 16:24
  • @Lekensteyn It's for typical desktop use, so I can pull up an unmodified installation when helping out others, and to provide a place to test out experimental configurations without putting my primary installation at risk. – ændrük Jun 07 '11 at 16:31
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    You might want to check the question [What files and directories can be excluded from a backup of the home directory?](http://askubuntu.com/q/40992/6969) – Lekensteyn Jun 07 '11 at 16:54
  • As snapshots will need considerable space you may consider [cloning](http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch05.html#cloningvdis) your fresh VM and play with the clone. – Takkat Jun 07 '11 at 18:20

2 Answers2

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Not sure what cruft there should be on a fresh installation apart from the apt cache. I'd rather concentrate on uninstalling unneeded packages. In synaptic you can sort them by install size.

htorque
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Depending on your programs, but I think that you can pretty much purge everything in /var/cache/ and ~/.cache and also delete your browser's cache or other programs like that.

Martin Ueding
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