# pkgtrim: a linux package trimmer tool

this post is about my little https://ypsu.github.io/pkgtrim project.

i tend to install too much crap on my machine and never uninstall them. this always bothered my minimalistic senses but i wasn't sure how to deal with this situation.

a friend showed me nixos and how you can have a config file and then drive the system installation from that config. i didn't really like nixos, it felt a bit too complex for my simple needs. but i really liked the config driven part.

the other thing he showed me was https://github.com/utdemir/nix-tree. this is a package explorer for nixos. it can also tell you the list and size of the "unique dependencies" for a package. these are the packages that have no other reverse dependencies other than the given package. i really liked that because those are all the packages i could get rid of after uninstalling the given package.

my system is archlinux and after that meeting i was wondering how to have an intent driven installation and allow me to explore package relationships in a simple manner. i think i've managed to figure it out. this is what i came up with: https://ypsu.github.io/pkgtrim/.

the ~/.pkgtrim on my small rpi4 contains all packages i need along with a comment why i need them. while setting it up i've managed to delete some garbage from my system. now i could easily reinstall the whole machine, run `pkgtrim -install`, and end up with the same packages installed as i have now. and i can keep the .pkgtrim file in my dotfiles repo. i think i will sleep better now.

oh and i used my new @/difftesting approach to develop this. writing this tool was a breeze!

published on 2024-09-16

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