How To Clear .Cache Folders and Free Up Space On Your Linux PC

Clean up your cache in a few easy steps!

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GNU/Linux has implemented efficient storage management for its users. But have you noticed your Linux system running out of space, filled with unused packages you installed months or years ago? How do find them and remove them? Here are a few valuable tips!

Cache File Location

Cache files are stored in /home/username/.cache which mostly consists of your browser’s data, IDE’s (if you use any ) and other software. Each user has its own data and this can build up exponentially . In order to clear it all it’s recommended to have Disk usage analyzer installed.

Disk Usage Analyzer

Disk Usage Analyzer, formerly known as Baobab, is a graphical disk usage analyzer for the GNOME desktop environment. It was part of gnome-utils, but has been a standalone application since GNOME 3.4.

The software gives the user a graphical representation of a disk drive’s contents. The interface allows for selection of specific parts of filesystem so a single folder, the entire filesystem, and even remote folders and filesystems can be scanned and listed at the folder level.

The graphical representation can be switched between a ‘Rings’ chart and a ‘Treemap’ chart to better suit the content being viewed.

Installation

If you don’t already have Disk Usage Analyzer installed, you first need to install the baobab package:

On Ubuntu

sudo apt install baobab

On Debian

sudo apt-get install baobab

On Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S baobab

Fedora

sudo dnf install baobab

On OpenSUSE

sudo zypper install baobab

Clear Cache files and folders

Step 1:

Click on home for your user data .

Click on your second disk i.e Vostro-14-3468 as shown in the image below .

Note: Names will be different on your own computer.

Here, the other disks shown as New Volume / 262 GB volume are formatted disks for a dual boot system, in my case Ubuntu 20.10 and Windows 10.

Step 2:

As you click on it, the Disk Usage Analyzer will start to scan your directory for files and folders. Be patient and allow it to finish. After Disk Usage Analyzer is done scanning your Linux PC for files it shows the live illustration of Linux disk usage as the form of a pie chart.

To see updated changes in your filesystem, you’ll need to refresh the scan as it won’t track these storage changes “live.”

Look in the folder tree structure for .cache, and click on it .

Step 3:

Once you click on the .cache folder, the disk usage analyzer will show you the space it’s consuming graphically on the right side .

• Find the sub folders inside it which you wish to delete .
• Right-click each one
• Select Move to trash / bin
• Now empty your trash / bin

And you are done!

Do not worry about deleting these folders. It is totally safe and the software will recreate them if and when it needs to.

Photo by Sebastian Pociecha on Unsplash

WARNING!

Do not delete anything from your usr and var directories. usr is used for “user programs”. Usually your package manager installs all the binaries, shared files etc. from all programs here (except config files, which go to /etc).

You can check /usr/bin for binaries, /usr/share for shared files (media, etc), /usr/share/doc for documentation.

There is also an /opt folder, where there are “other” binary programs or programs installed from sources other than the default package manager. Some programs like that (usually compiled) also go to usr/local

/var is usually used for log files, ‘temporary’ files (like mail spool, printer spool, etc), databases, and all other data not tied to a specific user.

Logs are usually in /var/log databases in var/lib (mysql — var/lib/mysql), etc.

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