[CentOS] question on unused directories in /usr/lib and /usr/lib64

Wed Feb 15 20:30:56 UTC 2012
Craig Thompson <cthompson at loganthompsonlaw.com>

I was working on archiving an old virtual server today and was reminded of how much space is wasted by some of the default installations on CentOS.  I think this was a 5.x box.

Anyway, in /usr/lib/64 (and probably /usr/lib on non-64 systems), there were a lot of directories which have no bearing on a basic server.  I saw firefox, openoffice and many, many other directories -- replete with enough files to seriously affect backup space over time.

Does anyone have an available script or list of commands for removing most or all of these "generally unused" directories, packages or whatever they are?

I found something a while back for shutting off unused services, but this seems to be a gaping hole in available archives.

Thanks.

CT