Re: how to clear out /var/cache?

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On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 at 18:21, Fred <fred.fredex@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Is it safe to just remove files from /var/cache on a running system, or is
> there a correct procedure for doing that?
>
> Mine has hit over 3 gigs, making it one of the larger directories in /,
> which is running low on space. I've hit all the low-hanging fruit I can
> find and now I come to things like /var/cache, and I don't know what to do
> about such.
>
>
The first step is to find out what is using it. It is probably dnf but
could be other utilities which are trying and failing to do something. I
start off with

```
$ sudo -i
# cd /var/cache
# du -sch | sort -h
0       ./PackageKit
0       ./app-info
0       ./bpf
0       ./fwupd
0       ./httpd
0       ./krb5rcache
0       ./libX11
0       ./libvirt
0       ./private
0       ./realmd
36K     ./ldconfig
1.7M    ./man
29M     ./dnf
31M     total

while on a different system:
4.0K    ./abrt-di
4.0K    ./bpf
4.0K    ./foomatic
4.0K    ./krb5rcache
4.0K    ./private
4.0K    ./realmd
8.0K    ./httpd
8.0K    ./libX11
8.0K    ./powertop
96K     ./ldconfig
300K    ./ibus
520K    ./libvirt
3.5M    ./man
4.2M    ./fwupd
38M     ./app-info
59M     ./cups
213M    ./PackageKit
332M    ./dnf
2.1G    ./mock
2.7G    total

```

As others have noted, dnf is probably the most used tool here, but it could
be mock or some other utility (I had cups because I misconfigured something
once)

dnf is a tricky tool because sometimes a command will create a
'not-so-temporary' cached tree which can't be cleaned because `dnf clean
all` doesn't know it. What I do is a `dnf clean all` and then go into
/var/cache/dnf and see what else might be still there. In my case I found a
large trove of packages from when I had enabled testing at one point and
then turned it off before doing a clean. I normally just delete all the
directories and do a `dnf update` to see if it reports errors.

Hope this helps.



Thanks in advance!
>
> Fred
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS@xxxxxxxxxx
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>


-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
Let us be kind to one another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle.
-- Ian MacClaren
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