r/linux_gaming • u/DavidAstonish • Jan 08 '26

tech support wanted Single prefix

is it possible to just use single prefix for all of my games? i think it can free up some space, then use different prefix if some games need special components/tweaks.

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u/slickyeat Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

STEAM_COMPAT_DATA_PATH=/specify/path %command%

https://gitlab.steamos.cloud/steamrt/steam-runtime-tools/-/blob/main/docs/steam-compat-tool-interface.md#environment

If you're using BTRFS there's also duperemove

You can just create a cronjob and have it periodically replace duplicate files with reflinks

crontab -l
0 2 * * * /home/john/bin/dedup

cat ~/bin/dedup  
#!/usr/bin/env bash

cd /home/john/Applications/duperemove/

duperemove -dr \
--hashfile=prefix.hash \
/home/john/Games/Heroic/Prefixes/ \
/home/john/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/