2015-01-11, 12:19
I heard from an old youtube video that users should install maitenance tool because apparently kodi does not delete old update files. Is this true?
2015-01-11, 12:21
it will keep xx mb (cannot recall the exact number) then prune based on date. this is to facilitate rollbacks.
2015-01-11, 12:48
The "maintenance tool" is a joke and breaks things more often than it helps. I wouldn't touch it with a 20 foot poll, if I were you.
2015-01-11, 18:00
(2015-01-11, 12:21)ironic_monkey Wrote: it will keep xx mb (cannot recall the exact number) then prune based on date. this is to facilitate rollbacks.
Yea no idea what this value is https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/ebb4c2...r.cpp#L436 but it seems from there downwards is this being handled.
Theres even an advanced setting to tweak this @ Advancedsettings.xml#packagefoldersize (wiki).
As an aside, if you install such maintenance tools you mention, you are also accepting that very unlikely get support for issues caused by it - in these boards. If for instance such addons are installed the first thing is to create a fresh/new userdata (wiki) to be recreated.used to test any issues reported. <- but that my take on this subject.
2015-01-12, 01:40
(2015-01-11, 12:48)Ned Scott Wrote: The "maintenance tool" is a joke and breaks things more often than it helps. I wouldn't touch it with a 20 foot poll, if I were you.
To expand on this:
The big benefit people have for using the various "maintenance tool"s is that it cleans up after some add-ons that don't always delete their files, and thus prevents the hard drive from filling up. That's not a bad thing, but it's really something that should be fixed in the add-ons themselves. Still, not really "bad", I guess.
What causes issues is that there are various settings that are toggled with the tool, ether semi-automatically or optionally, with little explanation to what they do. This includes advancedsettings.xml (wiki) settings, which can be a pain in the butt to edit manually, making the tool very convenient for some people. However, most things in advancedsettings.xml shouldn't just be toggled without some explanation or consideration for a user's specific set up, and it can cause a lot of issues.
For example, the cache settings can be set there, but contain no warning about wear and tear on flash-based memory when using the "zero" option. Using the local flash drive for video cache can greatly reduce the life of the drive. There's a lot of video data being written and erased all the time, and it's not an exaggeration to say that some devices might have a dead drive in less than a year's time. Best case scenario, the user just replaces the drive (like a USB flash drive or SD card) and they have to re-do their settings and library data. Worst case scenario, the flash memory is embedded in the device and is necessary for it to boot up, meaning the whole device can no longer be used.
Most of the issues are less extreme than that, but still cause a lot of confusion. There are various things that appear "broken" but are just the result of blindly changing the more advanced settings.
Everything you can do with these maintenance tools you can do "manually". It's honestly not that hard or scary, and things will be more stable in the long run.
