well, I removed all the files in the tree under /var/cache/yum/x86_64/7 but left all the directories empty. that got rid of a couple gigs of stuff. among the remains, the only other big one remaining is: 2.3G abrt-di which I won't mess with for now. I've got 4.2G free, now, so that should run me for quite a while. Thanks to all of you for your tips! Fred On Fri, Dec 31, 2021 at 10:38 AM Stephen John Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 at 18:21, Fred <fred.fredex at gmail.com> 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 at centos.org > > 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 > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos >