Debian/Ubuntu is it possible to reinitialize /var/lib/apt/lists and /var/apt/cache after deleting them?

Question

Is it possible to restore the functionality of /var/lib/apt/lists and /var/apt/cache after deleting them or minmizing them in some wa

I am trying to shrink down an Ubuntu VM to the smallest size and decided to delete /var/lib/apt/lists and /var/cache/apt with the intention of restoring them when the system needs to be updated. I have done /var/cache/apt without major side effects, simply recreating some directories reenables it. The /var/lib/apt/lists is the one I am unsure of. Is it possible delete it and restore its functionality by recreating like /var/cache/apt?

Does doing that destroy the knowledge apt and dpkg have of the systems configuration or is that stored elsewhere?

Answer 1

Yes, you can delete them!

Let's clone a VM and see what happens! :)

$ rm -r /var/cache/apt /var/lib/apt/lists
$ apt-get update #takes a while re-fetching everything
$ apt-get install <some-random-package>

Directories are recreated from the apt-get update operation and all is well. I might leave the *.gpg files alone if you're feeling paranoid, but otherwise those files are all ok to disappear.

In the past, I've had issues where I've had to manually mkdir /var/cache/apt/archives, but that no longer seems to be an issue.