  Slow package database  Dear list...  what has always annoyed
me is now ready to be asked on this list. :) It appears like
apt-get/aptitude/dpkg dealing with the list/database of
installed packages is terribly slow at times. I have roughly
1800 packages  installed and it sometimes takes 20-30 seconds to
install a single  package. On a freshly installed system that's
just a matter of seconds.  Since this is one of my two
development workstations I uninstall and  install a lot of
packages and dist-upgrade to unstable/experimental daily.  So
the package database is in permanent flux. What might be the
cause? Is  there some fragmentation effect? This is a common
effect on a few Debian  systems here so I assume I'm not alone
with it. Has anyone else observed  that? Is there a way to
optimize it?   Reply to: