Reclaim The Bytes

Remove unused software to reclaim disk space.

The inspiration for this action:

• easimon/maximize-build-space
• ThewApp/free-actions
• Other GitHub actions
• This discussion

Caveat: Removal of unnecessary software is implemented by rm -rf on specific folders, not by using a package manager or anything sophisticated. While this is quick and easy, it might delete dependencies that are required by your job and so break your build (e.g. because your build job uses a .NET based tool and you removed the required runtime). Please verify which software may or may not be removed for your specific use case.

Usage

name: My build action requiring more space
on: push

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build my artifact
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Reclaim the bytes
        uses: data-intuitive/reclaim-the-bytes@v2
        with:
          remove-hosted-tool-cache: true
          remove-go: false
          remove-codeql: false
          remove-powershell: false
          remove-android-sdk: true
          remove-haskell-ghc: true
          remove-swift: true
          remove-dotnet: true
          remove-docker-images: true
          remove-swap: false

      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Report free space
        run: |
          echo "Free space:"
          df -h

Inputs

• remove-hosted-tool-cache: Remove the hosted tool cache, including Go, CodeQL, Powershell. Execution time: 5s. Space freed: 10GB. Default: true.
• remove-go: Remove Go libraries. Execution time: 2s. Space freed: 1GB. Default: false.
• remove-codeql: Remove CodeQL. Execution time: 1s. Space freed: 6GB. Default: false.
• remove-powershell: Remove PowerShell. Execution time: 1s. Space freed: 1GB. Default: false.
• remove-android-sdk: Remove Android SDK. Execution time: 35s. Space freed: 12GB. Default: true.
• remove-haskell-ghc: Remove Haskell GHC. Execution time: 3s. Space freed: 5GB. Default: true.
• remove-swift: Remove Swift. Execution time: 1s. Space freed: 2GB. Default: true.
• remove-dotnet: Remove .NET libraries. Execution time: 5s. Space freed: 2GB. Default: true.
• remove-docker-images: Remove cached Docker images. Execution time: 18s. Space freed: 5GB. Default: true.
• remove-swap: Remove swap. Execution time: 1s. Space freed: 5GB on /mnt. Default: true.

Measurements

In deciding which software to remove, you do not only need to take into account whether the software is needed or not, but also how long it takes to remove vs. the amount of disk space removing it frees up. Here is a visualisation of that information.

Software	OS	Duration (s)	Space freed (GB)
android-sdk	ubuntu-20.04	26.8	12
android-sdk	ubuntu-22.04	37.0	13
codeql	ubuntu-20.04	1.0	6
codeql	ubuntu-22.04	1.0	6
docker-images	ubuntu-20.04	18.4	5
docker-images	ubuntu-22.04	17.0	4
dotnet	ubuntu-20.04	5.6	3
dotnet	ubuntu-22.04	2.2	2
go	ubuntu-20.04	2.2	1
go	ubuntu-22.04	1.2	2
haskell-ghc	ubuntu-20.04	2.8	5
haskell-ghc	ubuntu-22.04	3.4	5
hosted-tool-cache	ubuntu-20.04	5.0	10
hosted-tool-cache	ubuntu-22.04	3.4	9
powershell	ubuntu-20.04	0.8	1
powershell	ubuntu-22.04	0.6	2
python	ubuntu-20.04	0.0	0
python	ubuntu-22.04	0.4	0
swap	ubuntu-20.04	0.0	0
swap	ubuntu-22.04	0.0	0
swift	ubuntu-20.04	0.6	2
swift	ubuntu-22.04	0.4	2