unmount extensions, not sce - possible?

[Zendrael]

Hello all!

Is it possible to unmount extensions (that are not sce)?

I know that sce extensions are no longer supported (I'm on Core 5.2) and don't want to use then, jusnt wanto to unmount the ones that I have on my onDemand - after used them, i want to unmount/remove from memory.

[Rich]

Hi Zendrael
This has been ask before and the answer is it's not practical. Unless you are running in copy mode, it really makes no
difference since extensions reside on your drive and are loop mounted into the RAM file system.

[hiro]

I haven't done it in ages cause I upgraded from my 64MB PC to a 512MB embedded platform
But there are other reasons besides memory that might want you to unmount an extension. and yes, it works, but there is no official support.

[Misalf]

Some extensions use start scripts that are contained in the extensions (/usr/local/tce.installed/TCZ-NAME) to create symlinks or create copies of some files. These files will be orphaned after unmounting the tcz.
For extensions that do not contain a start script, an empty file is created in  /usr/local/tce.installed .
Some unrelated scripts check for the existance of  /usr/local/tce.installed/TCZ-NAME  to check if a dependency is available (not sure if a dead symlink still returns 'true' if checked for by a script).

I guess unmounting can be safe for some, but not all extensions. Deleting the files which were created while the extension was loaded might be advisable, though. There is probably more.

--

Or, to 'get back' some memory:

Code: [Select]

sudo /usr/sbin/cache-clear
Not sure if it makes that much sense, though. As I get it, cached memory will be made available for other programs if needed.

[Rich]

Hi Misalf
Clearing the cache is generally not useful. See:
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,9769.msg53362.html#msg53362

[Zendrael]

Thank you guys!

I just found unmount extensions related to the sce in the forum. The dependencies will really make a mess if we try to unmount the ones being used by other apps...

BUT... what if we could register somewhere the deps loaded and then, if we try to unmount some app it checks if the dep can or can not be unmounted? If it is being used by another mounted app, it stay; if not, we unmount.

Just thinking... 

[gerald_clark]

This has been discussed many times.  It doesn't need to be rehashed again.