[gentoo-user] Cleaning /var/lib/portage/packages -- a big mistake?

["Kevin O'Gorman" <kogorman@gmail.com>]

I'm trying to clean up my hard drive to make it feasible to back up
the root partition. I cleaned out /usr/portage/disfiles (10 GB) with
no problem.  But...

I also cleaned out /usr/portage/packages (10 GB) but now emerge --sync
is complaining about a large number of them, and apparently cannot
update its cache.  I just moved them to another partition, they're not
really gone, but I'd like to not be carrying around so many of them.

I've been running with FEATURES="buildpkg" on in /etc/make.conf, so
I've accumulated a lot of
these things.  How do I now clean up my act?  If there's a way, I'd
like to keep building them, but be able to manage them without ruining
portage.

Most of the messages said the package "should be deleted".  This
mystifies my as in effect
that's what I already did.  What does it want me to do?

The emerge --sync died eventually.  Maybe one or more of the packages
is more vital than most.  So there may be packages I should not
manage.  Here's the tail end of the output:


!!! Invalid binary package: '/usr/portage/packages/All/less-394.tbz2'
!!! This binary package is not recoverable and should be deleted.
!!! Invalid binary package: '/usr/portage/packages/All/pycrypto-2.0.1-r5.tbz2'
!!! This binary package is not recoverable and should be deleted.
!!! Invalid binary package: '/usr/portage/packages/All/lsof-4.76.tbz2'
!!! This binary package is not recoverable and should be deleted.
!!! Invalid binary package: '/usr/portage/packages/All/rsync-2.6.8-r2.tbz2'
!!! This binary package is not recoverable and should be deleted.
!!! Invalid binary package: '/usr/portage/packages/All/man-pages-2.31.tbz2'
!!! This binary package is not recoverable and should be deleted.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 5530, in ?
    retval = emerge_main()
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 5487, in emerge_main
    action_sync(settings, trees, mtimedb, myopts, myaction)
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 4207, in action_sync
    if portage.global_updates(settings, trees, mtimedb["updates"]):
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 8163, in global_updates
    trees["/"]["bintree"].move_slot_ent(update_cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 6413, in move_slot_ent
    self.populate()
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 6570, in populate
    mycat = mytbz2.getfile("CATEGORY")
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/xpak.py", line 345, in getfile
    a=open(self.file,"r")
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
'/usr/portage/packages/All/perl-cleaner-1.03.tbz2'

 portage #

Pointers, please...

++ kevin

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD
-- 
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