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I was reading this answer comments: ambiguous package name 'libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0' with more than one installed

There are few links to logs uploaded to paste.ubuntu.com back to June 2012. All of them were removed from the site.

As for myself, I used to include only links in my questions or questions I edited.

So does paste.ubuntu.com remove any snippet looking only into its age only, without tracking its use?

If so, then it is better to keep users aware of that and push to follow Jeff Atwood♦'s advice here: How should users share long log files?

It is generally a bad idea to post enormous log files. Who is going to read an enormous wall of text? It's a disincentive to answering.

Generally, try to post the most relevant section of the log file, then link to the full file elsewhere.

Give it a shot, at least.. since the full file is linked, it's the best of both worlds.

Update:

I used to include long script as link. As they will be removed just after 3 years. This seems to me a serious issue. It should be mentioned well & clear in the help pages or may even notify the new users when they include links.

Why I got that expectation of long live paste? paste.ubuntu.com is an official Ubuntu site & Ubuntu basically provide support for 5 years to LTS server releases.

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    "... without tracking its use" - it's probable it does track usage, and these links were just not visited in a long time.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 10:50
  • @muru , sorry i wasn't clear in my meaning of usage, Activity & Referred page with respect to paste.ubuntu.com site. In other words, the usage of that link in Ask Ubuntu. If it is just in Comments and Closed/Deleted Q or in an Open Question. I'm in doubt if paste.ubuntu.com remove the uploads of an open question.
    – user.dz
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 14:53
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    I don't think the Ubuntu paste service is aware, or even can be aware, whether links to pastes are still present in Ask Ubuntu posts (open or not), or Launchpad, or Ubuntu Forums posts, etc. That level of integration would be hard just with sites that Canonical controls, let alone Ask Ubuntu, which is run by Stack Overflow.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 15:12
  • @muru I also think same of no check run before remove, but it is not hard as this does not need any integration, it is enough for paste site to get the SE data export (yearly published to the public) and extract the list of links still in use. Well, thank you I will keep this in mind and include important portions in my posts.
    – user.dz
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 15:37
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    Since this question is about the official Ubuntu pastebin it should probably be on main not meta (it doesn't have anything to do with AU itself).
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 15:38
  • @Seth, first i post as this issue harm AU old post, as many post don't include important portion of logs in the question leaving them with broken links. but it could be a feature query for paste.ubuntu.com . But for now, the solution we have is to tell users to copy important portion from log into the post text. see below comment please.
    – user.dz
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 16:11
  • @muru , I could confirm it does not check before remove, check links mentioned in these posts , it harm even high votes posts.
    – user.dz
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 16:13
  • Related post: askubuntu.com/questions/288083/…
    – user.dz
    Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 11:45

1 Answer 1

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Yes, paste.ubuntu.com is cleaned up from time to time and doesn't have any notion of long lived service, it's a pastebin not an archive.

If something is supposed to be critical to answering a question it should be in the question itself.

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    Maybe a warning to reflect this, is in order.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 20, 2016 at 23:49
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    If you do need something more permanent for a long dump of code... I humbly offer quickmediasolutions.com/pastebin (requires registration). But yeah, usually getting the information into the question is better.
    – Nathan Osman
    Commented Feb 2, 2016 at 0:14
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    How often is "from time to time"? Is there any length of time for which it is guaranteed that the paste will be available? The web page just says "Submitted data is not guaranteed to be permanent, and may be removed at any time" so I guess not, but having at least a day or a week would make more sense to me.
    – nealmcb
    Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 19:08

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