# Removing unneeded files in /usr/ports/distfiles



## freethread (Apr 4, 2014)

On the last 3 or 4 weeks (perhaps more) I have some ports that doesn't install if I uninstall (pkg-delete()) and reinstall (`portaster category/port`) them. The only thing I changed is not deleting distfiles (to save time downloading them), that is, I always ran `portmaster --clean-distfiles -y` after a `portsnap fetch update` and I run portsnap whenever I have to install a port or before upgrading ports and rarely a port failed to install/reinstall. I don't say if it's related to that, but often I'm no more able to reinstall some ports (for example: devel/py-dbus, java/eclipse-devel).

I was not able to install the port devel/py-dbus, today I deleted unneeded distfiles (with portmaster command as above) and then re-run `portmaster devel/py-dbus` and it installed with no problems. It seems the distfiles was corrupted but they are checked before the compiling process starts and should redownloaded if changed or corrupted.

In VirtualBox VM 30 GB HD no slices + 2 GB swap (and about 300 GB in NFS), 3 GB RAM

```
uname -a
FreeBSD gamma.xxxxxx.xxx 10.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE #0 r260789: Thu Jan 16 22:34:59 UTC 2014     root@snap.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
```

I also say that tmpfs solved some problems (installing editors/kate).


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