Yes, yes, I shouldn't have a full desktop install on a computational node, but the nodes serve as instant replacement desktops if something goes awry with my main desktop, and occasionally visitors get to use them to access the internet in order to avoid getting bored.
Anyway, tracker-miner-fs is eating up 26% of my 8 Gb RAM on one of my nodes running KDE, and I really don't need it. I mean, I don't know if it's useful to most people running a full DE, but on my node I most certainly, definitely don't need it.
Given the number of posts online with questions about tracker ('What is it?", "Why is it using up all my resources?" etc.) I think that there's a bit of a PR problem. If it's a program that is noticeable because it makes demands on your computer system, the users should be allowed to know why putting up with this extra drain on resources is desirable -- or not.
Anyway.
aptitude show tracker says:
"Tracker is an advanced framework for first class objects with associated metadata and tags. It provides a one stop solution for all metadata, tags, shared object databases, search tools and indexing."
...which means what exactly in practical terms?
man tracker-miner-fs
NAME
tracker-miner-fs - Used to crawl the file system to mine data.
man tracker-store
NAME
tracker-store - database indexer and query daemon
My guess would be that tracker-miner is basically indexing files for faster search, but I really don't know. It's one daemon I'm happy to expel.
There's a standard place for stuff that's supposed to be brought up with x:
ls /etc/xdg/autostart/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 306 May 3 09:42 at-spi-dbus-bus.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6216 Jun 20 06:58 evolution-alarm-notify.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7404 Oct 14 2011 gdu-notification-daemon.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5340 May 24 08:46 gnome-keyring-gpg.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6711 May 24 08:46 gnome-keyring-pkcs11.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6282 May 24 08:46 gnome-keyring-secrets.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5138 May 24 08:46 gnome-keyring-ssh.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6681 May 30 21:02 gnome-sound-applet.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7018 Apr 28 09:27 gsettings-data-convert.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 460 Oct 21 2011 guake.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 301 Jun 24 16:52 hplip-systray.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 238 Dec 2 2011 kerneloops-applet.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4673 Mar 25 08:49 nm-applet.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 250 Sep 10 2011 notification-daemon.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4651 Nov 12 2011 polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7112 Dec 23 2011 print-applet.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3864 Oct 1 2011 pulseaudio.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 633 May 20 06:08 pulseaudio-kde.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3288 Aug 12 12:05 tracker-miner-fs.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3004 Aug 12 12:05 tracker-store.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11041 Apr 4 22:02 user-dirs-update-gtk.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 433 Nov 3 2011 wicd-tray.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 150 Feb 8 2012 xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 357 Aug 1 2011 xfce4-volumed.desktop
Incidentally, the folder on that particular node betrays a history of previously installed desktop environments...
To stop and remove the tracker-miner processes, do
tracker-control -r
It removes the databases it has created as well.
To disable:
Launch tracker-preferences from the KDE menu. Uncheck all options under 'Semantics'. Uncheck all places under locations. Clicking apply doesn't seem to have any effect, but if you open tracker-preferences again you'll probably find that it worked.
To disable tracker-miner-fs and tracker-store from the terminal you can probably edit:
tracker-miner-fs.desktop:
51 Icon=
52 Exec=/usr/lib/tracker/tracker-miner-fs
53 Terminal=false
54 Type=Application
55 Categories=Utility;
56 X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=false
57 X-KDE-autostart-enabled=false
58 X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
59 X-KDE-UniqueApplet=true
60 NoDisplay=true
tracker-store.desktop
54 Icon=
55 Exec=/usr/lib/tracker/tracker-store
56 Terminal=false
57 Type=Application
58 Categories=Utility;
59 X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=false
60 X-KDE-autostart-enabled=false
61 X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
62 X-KDE-UniqueApplet=true
63 NoDisplay=true
64 OnlyShowIn=GNOME;KDE;XFCE;
Reasons why we don't simply uninstall it:
apt-cache rdepends tracker
tracker
Reverse Depends:
tracker-miner-fs
tracker-gui
tracker-gui
tracker-gui
nautilus
tracker-miner-evolution
tracker-utils
tracker-extract
brasero
shared-mime-info
tracker-utils
tracker-miner-fs
tracker-miner-evolution
tracker-gui
tracker-gui
tracker-gui
tracker-extract
tracker-explorer
tracker-dbg
shared-mime-info
rygel-tracker
nautilus (twice?)
catfish
