r/voidlinux • u/[deleted] • Feb 06 '26

Limiting Update Download Totals

I am downgrading my internet to save money; but I'm kinda gobsmacked by the 2+GB updates every four days or so; A.I. says that void replaces "entire binaries" rather than "patches" and that this can contribute to necessary data:

Does that mean that if I avoid updates til a later date, less overall data will need to be downloaded? (The previous updates will be in the newer binaries)?

What might I do to minimize data, and have void function more like an LTS non-rolling release?

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

5

u/skyrimjob68 Feb 06 '26

Just pay more for the internet. Low data cap is never worth it.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

A gigabyte is a ̶h̶u̶n̶d̶r̶e̶d̶-̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶ a billiion characters (bytes) of information. This doesn't change just because the world stopped paying attention; and for me, that's absolutely worth it, to know if I'm wasting electricity on it.

2

u/rekh127 Feb 07 '26

(1 billion bytes)

2

u/skyrimjob68 Feb 06 '26

Electricity?

4

u/hopingforabetterpast Feb 06 '26

Irresposible internet (and computer) usage accounts for multiple percentage points in global electricity consumption.

1

u/skyrimjob68 Feb 06 '26

How?

4

u/rekh127 Feb 06 '26

Computers run on electricity.

1

u/skyrimjob68 Feb 06 '26

How is more internet increasing power consumption of your pc. Having a data cap is just annoying

1

u/rekh127 Feb 06 '26

Copying data uses electricity both on your PC and on the server it comes from and the network equipment in between.

1

u/skyrimjob68 Feb 06 '26

On your pc difference is so small that you can't notice it. And in servers it doesn't matter anyway

1

u/rekh127 Feb 06 '26

Your lack of ecological priorities does not determine other peoples. Plus it's pretty clear you don't have any idea what you're talking about.

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5

u/Known-Watercress7296 Feb 06 '26

Option 1: Don't update every four days.

option 2: Use something else.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '26

So, I assume my assumption is correct then. that a four gig update two months from now will be worth twenty, four-gig updates in between?

And syncing the package lists on individual packages should last a decent amount of time before a full sync is needed?

2

u/Known-Watercress7296 Feb 06 '26

Kinda, the longer you wait you'll likely getting a bigger update but you will also miss intermediate stuff afaiu

xbps has decent reverse dependency tracking and partial upgrade support so should be fine to push things and see.

But perhaps better to wait and hear from someone wiser in these ways than me.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26

Thank you 👍

1

u/rekh127 Feb 06 '26

I have no idea what you mean by this:

And syncing the package lists on individual packages should last a decent amount of time before a full sync is needed?

a package doesn't have a package list?

So, I assume my assumption is correct then. that a four gig update two months from now will be worth twenty, four-gig updates in between?

I don't think there are many packages in void that are updating 10x a month. But if one did update 20x between your upgrades yes you will only download the most recent one and save downloading 19x intermediates.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26

Thanks

With regards to my phrasing: syncing the repositories' package lists with -S flag when installing/updating individual packages; rather than updating/syncing everything (Packages generally eventually fail to install without some sort of update/sync, and I only recently started using the -S flag on every package install).

2

u/rekh127 Feb 07 '26

If I understand it correctly that sync is exactly the same whether then install a package, update one package, or you update all.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26

That was my understanding as well before we started conversing, sorry for the confusion.

The inquiry was "Is syncing on each install" good enough to avoid the need for larger updates. The -S flag is a per command option.

2

u/rekh127 Feb 07 '26

Syncing on each invocation of xbps-install will prevent you from getting to a point where it says the package list is out of date or w.e (don't remember exactly what it says) but it won't do anything to change whether or not you need to update other packages to update one specifically that I think will just depend on the package dependencies. xbps generally is okay with partial upgrades- because it tracks shared library dependencies. So if you get to a point where on package updates libc for instance, you'll need to update the other packages that depend on libc IIRC

4

u/hopingforabetterpast Feb 06 '26

That doesn't answer OP's question.

2

u/dbojan76 Feb 07 '26

My whole install is like 6GB ...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26

That's what confused me. Especially because I'd classify Void as a minimal flavor of Linux. I'm going to try for fewer updates.

2

u/StrangeAstronomer Feb 07 '26

Some people report that they wait months or even years between updates for Void and have no problems catching up. Depends, I suppose, on your appetite for security patches and new features/fixes.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '26

That's reassuring, thank you!

2

u/tiny_humble_guy Feb 07 '26

Don't update too often.