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os: debian tracker service and how to disable
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practicalli-johnny committed Dec 26, 2024
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Expand Up @@ -334,4 +334,58 @@ Run apt update to refresh the cache. Use `apt -t unstable install <package-name>
!!! EXAMPLE "Install specific package from Sid"
```shell
apt -t unstable install hyprland
```



## Debian Tracker

[Tracker service](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Tracker) indexes many types of files to enable discovery of files by other Gnome services and applications.

- [desktop search](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntegratedDesktopSearch)
- Tag database for keyword tagging
- Extensible metadata database to add custom metadata to files, e.g. rhythmbox, gedit, etc.
- Store First Class Objects and the Gnome 3.0 Model

> NOTE: when actively using Gnome desktop and Gnome apps, disabling the tracker may reduce functionality

### Disable the tracker service

The tracker service can be a significant drain on computer resources as it indexes files, especially when there have been a log of changes or for a newly installed system.

The tracker has many dependencies, so its not easy to remove the `tracker-miner-fs-3` package when actively using the Gnome desktop.

The recommended approach is to edit the `.desktop` files and add `Hidden=true` at the end of each tracker related file and reboot the operating system.

```config title="/etc/xdg/autostart/tracker-miner-fs-3.desktop"
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Tracker File System Miner
Comment=Crawls and processes files on the file system
Exec=/usr/libexec/tracker-miner-fs-3
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=false
X-GNOME-HiddenUnderSystemd=false
# X-KDE-autostart-after=panel
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
X-KDE-UniqueApplet=true
NoDisplay=true
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;KDE;XFCE;X-IVI;Unity;
X-systemd-skip=true
Hidden=true
```

If adding "Hiddent=true" is not sufficient, then disable the services for all users by setting them to `/dev/null` using the `systemctl` command.

```shell
sudo systemctl --global mask tracker-miner-fs-3.service
sudo systemctl --global mask tracker-xdg-portal-3.service
```

Remove the database of indexed files from each user account on the system

```shell
rm -rf $HOME/.cache/tracker*
```
```

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