NILFS-CLEAN(8)

✨ NILFS-CLEAN ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to nilfs-clean, section 8 of the System Manager's Manual 💖 this is the lil tool that pokes nilfs_cleanerd(8) and tells it what to do about garbage collection. yes she's giving main character energy, no she is not here to be subtle 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

nilfs-clean — run garbage collector on NILFS file system 🧹✨

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

nilfs-clean [options] [device|node]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so the way that nilfs-clean works is it literally talks to nilfs_cleanerd(8) and controls how garbage collection (GC) runs on your NILFS2 file systems. it's the girl in the group chat who makes the plans happen 💖

you can use it to manually run garbage collection on a file system mounted on device, and the whole point is to free up space. and device? she's flexible bestie — it can be a block device or a filesystem node (a file or a directory) that lives on that filesystem 🫶

now, if you pass a GC command using one of the following options — that's -c, -s, -r, and -l — then the command gets sent over to nilfs_cleanerd(8) and performed there. but if you specify no commands at all? then nilfs-clean just triggers a one-pass cleaning. simple as that, periodt ✨

when device is omitted, nilfs-clean goes and picks an active NILFS2 file system in the system for you. she chooses 🔥

⚠️ okay important: this command is valid only for mounted NILFS2 file systems, and it will fail if the device has no active mounts. no mounts, no service, sorry babe 😭

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -b, --break, --stop — stop garbage collection. that's it, that's the tweet 💀
• -c, --reload[=conffile] — request a config file reload from the cleaner process. if you hand over an optional configuration file, that file gets read by nilfs_cleanerd(8) and the cleaner configuration gets reset to whatever's in it. if you give no argument, then a configuration file selected by nilfs_cleanerd(8) gets reloaded instead. her choice, not yours 💅
• -l, --status — display cleaner status. we love a status update 👑
• -h, --help — display help message and exit. the classic escape hatch 🏃‍♀️
• -m, --min-reclaimable-blocks=COUNT[%] — specify the minimum number of reclaimable blocks a segment needs before it can be cleaned. if the argument is followed by a percent sign, it means the ratio of blocks in a segment. heads up tho: this argument will only have an effect if the use_set_suinfo flag is set in the configuration file. no flag, no vibes ✨
• -p, --protection-period=interval — set the protection period for a cleaner run. interval is an integer value and it specifies the minimum time that deleted or overwritten data will be preserved in the file system. smaller values = more free space made by garbage collection 🔥 optionally, interval can be suffixed with one of these units designators: s, m, h, d, w, M, or Y — that's seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years respectively. pick your time era bestie ⏳
• -q, --quit — shut down the cleaner daemon. bye girl 💜
• -r, --resume — resume garbage collection. welcome back 🎀
• -s, --suspend — suspend garbage collection. but note this: if users manually suspend garbage collection with this option, it will not restart automatically until the user resumes the garbage collection. so like, you did this, you undo it, iykyk 🙈
• -S, --speed=COUNT[/SECONDS] — set garbage collection speed for a cleaner run. zoom zoom 🦋
• -v, --verbose — verbose mode. give me all the lore 📖
• -V, --version — display version and exit. slay ⭐

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

Ryusuke Konishi <konishi.ryusuke@gmail.com> — thank you for your service king 👑

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💖 AVAILABILITY 💖

nilfs-clean is part of the nilfs-utils package and is available from https://nilfs.sourceforge.io. go get her 🛍️

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

nilfs(8), nilfs_cleanerd(8). read those too bestie, they're the supporting cast 🫶

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and that's the whole page!! this was nilfs-utils version 2.3, dated Jan 2026 🌸 mwah, go clean some garbage, you're doing amazing sweetie 💅✨