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Version: develop

Cleaning up old versions

Most tools are installed into versioned directories under ~/.local/opt, following the pattern ~/.local/opt/<tool>-<version> (for example ~/.local/opt/eza-0.23.5). The matching binary is then symlinked into ~/.local/bin.

Whenever a newer version is installed, a brand new directory is created next to the old one. Without any cleanup these directories pile up over time and waste disk space:

~/.local/opt/
├── eza-0.22.0
├── eza-0.23.4
└── eza-0.23.5   <- currently in use

Automatic cleanup​

Auto-cleanup is enabled by default. After a tool is installed/updated, proveasio removes every older ~/.local/opt/<tool>-* directory and keeps only the version that is currently in use. After a run the example above becomes:

~/.local/opt/
└── eza-0.23.5   <- currently in use

The cleanup only ever touches directories that match the tool it just installed, and never removes the version that is currently linked, so it is safe to leave on.

Turning it off globally​

To keep every installed version of every tool, set the global switch in your ansible/vars/overrides.yml:

cleanup_old_versions: false

Turning it off for particular software only​

If you only want to keep old versions of some specific tools (for example to be able to quickly roll back helm or k9s), leave the global switch on and add those tools to cleanup_old_versions_exclude in your ansible/vars/overrides.yml:

cleanup_old_versions_exclude:
  - helm # keep every ~/.local/opt/helm-* version
  - k9s  # keep every ~/.local/opt/k9s-* version

The names used here are the directory prefixes under ~/.local/opt (the part before -<version>). This mirrors the way software_tasks_exclude works, so the convention should feel familiar.

AWS CLI​

AWS CLI is also cleaned up, but it uses its own on-disk layout. Its bundled installer keeps every version under ~/.local/opt/aws-cli/v2/<version> and points a current symlink at the active one:

~/.local/opt/aws-cli/v2/
├── 2.34.33
├── 2.36.34        <- current
└── current -> 2.36.34

The cleanup keeps only the version the current symlink points to and removes the rest. To keep every AWS CLI version, add aws-cli to the exclude list:

cleanup_old_versions_exclude:
  - aws-cli

Node (nvm)​

Node versions are installed by nvm under ~/.local/opt/nvm/versions/node/<version> and are never removed when a new default is installed:

~/.local/opt/nvm/versions/node/
├── v20.19.5
├── v22.22.2
└── v22.23.2   <- default

The cleanup resolves the concrete version behind the default alias (the node_version variable may be an alias such as lts/jod) and removes every other installed Node version. To keep every Node version, add node to the exclude list:

cleanup_old_versions_exclude:
  - node
Neovim

Neovim is intentionally left out of the automatic cleanup because it uses a different on-disk layout (a shared neovim-nightly directory holding the downloaded appimages). Its old artifacts are not removed automatically.

tip

Cleanup runs as part of the versions tag, so a run limited to updating versions will also prune old directories:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml setup-ubuntu.yml --tags versions -K

To skip the cleanup while still running everything else, use --skip-tags cleanup.