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Created March 22, 2020 14:23
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Revisions

  1. @vancluever vancluever revised this gist Jun 6, 2019. 1 changed file with 2 additions and 2 deletions.
    4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions gnome-tracker-disable.md
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    @@ -74,8 +74,8 @@ indexed.
    ```
    tracker daemon -t
    cd ~/.config/autostart
    cp -v /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-* ./
    for FILE in tracker-*; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    cp -v /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-*.desktop ./
    for FILE in tracker-*.desktop; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    rm -rf ~/.cache/tracker ~/.local/share/tracker
    ```

  2. @vancluever vancluever revised this gist Jun 6, 2019. 1 changed file with 1 addition and 1 deletion.
    2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion gnome-tracker-disable.md
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    @@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ indexed.
    tracker daemon -t
    cd ~/.config/autostart
    cp -v /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-* ./
    for FILE in `ls`; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    for FILE in tracker-*; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    rm -rf ~/.cache/tracker ~/.local/share/tracker
    ```

  3. @vancluever vancluever revised this gist Jan 9, 2016. 1 changed file with 4 additions and 0 deletions.
    4 changes: 4 additions & 0 deletions gnome-tracker-disable.md
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    @@ -79,6 +79,10 @@ for FILE in `ls`; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    rm -rf ~/.cache/tracker ~/.local/share/tracker
    ```

    Note that `tracker daemon -t` is for graceful termination. If you are having
    issues terminating processes or just want to take your frustration out,
    `tracker daemon -k` immediately kills all processes.

    After this is done, `tracker-store` will still start on the next boot. However,
    nothing will be indexed. Your disk and CPU will be better for wear.

  4. @vancluever vancluever created this gist Jan 9, 2016.
    98 changes: 98 additions & 0 deletions gnome-tracker-disable.md
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    Disabling GNOME Tracker and Other Info
    =======================================

    GNOME's tracker is a CPU and privacy hog. There's a pretty good case as to why
    it's neither useful nor necessary here:
    http://lduros.net/posts/tracker-sucks-thanks-tracker/

    After discovering it chowing 2 cores, I decided to go about disabling it.

    Directories
    ------------

    ```
    ~/.cache/tracker
    ~/.local/share/tracker
    ```

    After wiping and letting it do a fresh index on my almost new desktop, the total
    size of each of these directories was a whopping 3.9 GB!


    Startup Files
    --------------

    On my Ubuntu GNOME setup, I found the following files:

    ```
    $ ls /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-*
    /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-extract.desktop
    /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-miner-fs.desktop
    /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-store.desktop
    /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-miner-apps.desktop
    /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-miner-user-guides.desktop
    ```

    You can disable these by adding `Hidden=true` to them. It's best done in your
    local `.config` directory because 1) you don't need sudo and 2) you are pretty
    much guaranteed that your changes won't be blown away by an update.


    The `tracker` Binary
    ---------------------

    Running `tracker` will give you a vast array of tools to check on tracker and
    manage its processes.

    ```
    $ tracker
    usage: tracker [--version] [--help]
    <command> [<args>]
    Available tracker commands are:
    daemon Start, stop, pause and list processes responsible for indexing content
    info Show information known about local files or items indexed
    index Backup, restore, import and (re)index by MIME type or file name
    reset Reset or remove index and revert configurations to defaults
    search Search for content indexed or show content by type
    sparql Query and update the index using SPARQL or search, list and tree the ontology
    sql Query the database at the lowest level using SQL
    status Show the indexing progress, content statistics and index state
    tag Create, list or delete tags for indexed content
    See 'tracker help <command>' to read about a specific subcommand.
    ```


    Non-Invasive Disable Cheat Sheet
    ---------------------------------

    This disables everything but `tracker-store`, which even though it has a
    `.desktop` file, seems tenacious and starts up anyway. However, nothing gets
    indexed.

    ```
    tracker daemon -t
    cd ~/.config/autostart
    cp -v /etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-* ./
    for FILE in `ls`; do echo Hidden=true >> $FILE; done
    rm -rf ~/.cache/tracker ~/.local/share/tracker
    ```

    After this is done, `tracker-store` will still start on the next boot. However,
    nothing will be indexed. Your disk and CPU will be better for wear.

    ```
    $ tracker status
    Currently indexed: 0 files, 0 folders
    Remaining space on database partition: 123 GB (78.9%)
    All data miners are idle, indexing complete
    ```


    Other References
    -----------------

    * https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Tracker/
    * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Tracker
    * http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s05.html