Prune dnf history database?

Hi Everyone,

My dnf history is rather large due to several years of dnf system upgrades. I want to prune the database.

I want to remove entries prior to the last dnf system-upgrade. I’ve been through the dnf man pages but I don’t see how to trim or prune the database. Searching on Google is also failing to return relevant results.

How do I prune dnf history database?

Thanks in advance.

2 Likes
sudo rm -f /var/lib/dnf/history.*
2 Likes

Thanks Vladislav.

So it looks like the information shown by dnf history is from the trans table.

sqlite3 /var/lib/dnf/history.sqlite
sqlite> .tables
comps_environment        console_output           trans
comps_environment_group  item                     trans_item
comps_group              item_replaced_by         trans_with
comps_group_package      repo
config                   rpm

And:

sqlite> SELECT * FROM trans;
1|1553601932|1553602307|0:da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709|739:c4ad7ee39a57027f0dbd59471352536e2432c296|29|-1||1|
2|1553603827|1553604430|739:c4ad7ee39a57027f0dbd59471352536e2432c296|778:55fecf768e2873024c83a9355a9d4822ef405af8|29|1000|-y update|1|
3|1553604476|1553604492|778:5bbbe422c529141d0a7c6deb9c767a7a4a17aeb9|793:e821f151bc353b4c631b9ce5de840cd25e0eb19c|29|1000|-y install clang gcc gcc-c++ make automake autoconf libtool pkg-config lcov|1|
...

Based on my dnf history:

root@skylake# dnf history | grep system-upgrade
  1464 | system-upgrade upgrade    | 2021-04-30 15:29 | D, E, I, O, U  | 2484 EE
  1286 | system-upgrade upgrade    | 2020-10-28 14:35 | D, I, O, U     | 2344 EE
  1112 | system-upgrade upgrade    | 2020-05-04 18:42 | D, E, I, O, U  | 1862 EE
    ...

I think I can remove entries 1-1463.

Going back to to the database:

sqlite> .schema trans
CREATE TABLE trans (
        id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
        dt_begin INTEGER NOT NULL,      /* (unix timestamp) date and time of transaction begin */
        dt_end INTEGER,                 /* (unix timestamp) date and time of transaction end */
        rpmdb_version_begin TEXT,
        rpmdb_version_end TEXT,
        releasever TEXT NOT NULL,       /* var: $releasever */
        user_id INTEGER NOT NULL,       /* user ID (UID) */
        cmdline TEXT,                   /* recorded command line (program, options, arguments) */
        state INTEGER NOT NULL          /* (enum) */
    , comment TEXT DEFAULT "");

So it looks like this should do the trick:

sqlite> DELETE FROM trans WHERE id <= 1463;
sqlite> DELETE FROM trans_item WHERE trans_id <= 1463;
sqlite> DELETE FROM trans_with WHERE trans_id <= 1463;
sqlite> DELETE FROM console_output WHERE trans_id <= 1463;
sqlite> VACUUM;
sqlite> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM trans;
35

And now when I look at my dnf history:

skylake:~$ dnf history
ID     | Command line              | Date and time    | Action(s)      | Altered
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1500 | remove kernel-0:5.12.6-30 | 2021-05-30 23:17 | ?, E           |    5 EE
  1499 | -y autoremove             | 2021-05-30 23:17 | Removed        |    1
  1498 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-30 21:58 | I, U           |   91 EE
  1497 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-26 04:18 | Upgrade        |   36
  1496 | -y remove kernel-0:5.12.5 | 2021-05-25 19:01 | ?, E           |    5 EE
  1495 | -y update                 | 2021-05-25 18:56 | Install        |    4
  1494 | -y remove kernel-0:5.11.2 | 2021-05-24 16:44 | ?, E           |    9 EE
  1493 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-24 04:15 | Upgrade        |   21
  1492 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-23 04:17 | I, U           |   21
  1491 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-22 04:19 | Upgrade        |   12
  1490 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-21 04:20 | Upgrade        |   17
  1489 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-20 04:21 | I, U           |   17
  1488 | -y autoremove             | 2021-05-19 12:43 | Removed        |    4
  1487 | -y remove kernel-0:5.11.1 | 2021-05-19 12:41 | ?, E           |    9 EE
  1486 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-19 04:21 | Upgrade        |   11 EE
  1485 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-18 04:20 | Upgrade        |   10
  1484 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-17 04:19 | Upgrade        |    9
  1483 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-16 04:18 | I, U           |   20
  1482 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-15 04:14 | Upgrade        |   43
  1481 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-13 04:14 | I, U           |   18 EE
  1480 | -y autoremove             | 2021-05-13 04:13 | Removed        |    3
  1479 | -y remove kernel-0:5.11.1 | 2021-05-12 16:21 | Removed        |    8 EE
  1478 | -y update                 | 2021-05-12 15:41 | Upgrade        |    8 EE
  1477 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-12 04:15 | Upgrade        |    6
  1476 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-10 04:18 | Upgrade        |    8
  1475 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-09 04:13 | I, U           |   32
  1474 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-08 04:19 | I, U           |   19
  1473 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-07 04:21 | I, U           |   79
  1472 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-06 04:12 | O, U           |   58 EE
  1471 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-05 04:12 | Upgrade        |   32
  1470 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-03 04:11 | I, U           |   22
  1469 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-02 04:21 | Upgrade        |    6
  1468 | -y upgrade                | 2021-05-01 04:14 | Upgrade        |   24
  1467 | -y remove kernel-0:5.11.1 | 2021-04-30 16:26 | Removed        |    8 EE
  1466 | autoremove                | 2021-04-30 16:22 | Removed        |   34
  1465 | remove adwaita-qt4-0:1.1. | 2021-04-30 16:22 | Removed        |   12
  1464 | system-upgrade upgrade    | 2021-04-30 15:29 | D, E, I, O, U  | 2484 EE

And the before and after stats:

# Before the pruning
root@skylake# ls -l /var/lib/dnf/history.sqlite
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 16846848 May 30 23:12 /var/lib/dnf/history.sqlite

# After the pruning
root@skylake# ls -l /var/lib/dnf/history.sqlite
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 6344704 May 30 23:14 /var/lib/dnf/history.sqlite
1 Like

Before dnf there was yum history new to do that. There seems to be no equivalent for dnf.
Red Hat knowledge base suggests: rm - r /var/lib/dnf/history*. See also Red Hat Bugzilla Bug 1761680.

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