PKG-CLEAN(8)

πŸ“¦ version 2.7.5, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

πŸ’… PKG-CLEAN(8) β€” the one where your cache gets a glow-up

okay so bestie, welcome to pkg-clean, from the System Manager's Manual section 8. she's a little utility with one job and she does it slayfully. let's get into it πŸŽ€


✨ NAME ✨

pkg clean β€” clean the local cache of fetched remote packages

like, she's the friend who comes over and helps you throw out the hoodies you haven't worn since 2019. no cap πŸ’…


🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pkg clean [-anqy]

pkg clean [--{all,dry-run,quiet,yes}]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. four little letters and four long ones πŸ¦‹


πŸ’– DESCRIPTION πŸ’–

pkg clean is used to cleanup the local cache of packages downloaded from remote repositories. it literally removes packages that have been superseded by newer versions, and any packages that are no longer provided.

so like β€” think of your cache as your camera roll. the out-of-date packages are the blurry selfies from 2021 that got replaced by better ones. pkg clean is the "delete 4,000 photos" button. iconic behavior, honestly. πŸ”₯


πŸ‘‘ OPTIONS πŸ‘‘

the following options are supported by pkg clean:

  • -a, --all β€” delete all cached packages including those which have not been superseded by newer versions yet and are still in use. yes bestie, all of them. this is the "burn it down, we'll re-download it later" option πŸ’€
  • -n, --dry-run β€” do not delete any package files from the cache, but show what would be done instead. forces the preview of the packages that would be deleted to be shown, even when used with -y. 🫢
note: the package cache file permissions only permit root access. results will be disappointing for any other user. like, embarrassing-level disappointing 😭
  • -q, --quiet β€” be quiet. suppress most output. all output is suppressed if -y is also used. she's giving stealth mode 🧚
  • -y, --yes β€” assume a yes answer instead of asking for confirmation before deleting any out of date or redundant packages from the cache. no more "are you sure?" pop-ups. main character energy πŸ’…

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the following environment variables affect the execution of pkg clean. see pkg.conf(5) for further description.

  • DEFAULT_ALWAYS_YES
  • ASSUME_ALWAYS_YES
  • PKG_DBDIR
  • PKG_CONFIG_CACHEDIR

four variables, all listed, all respected. she reads the room (and the env) πŸ’œ


πŸ¦‹ FILES πŸ¦‹

see pkg.conf(5).

(short and sweet β€” she's not gonna spell it out twice, iykyk)


⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

pkg_create(3), pkg_printf(3), pkg_repo_create(3), pkg_repos(3), pkg-keywords(5), pkg-lua-script(5), pkg-repository(5), pkg-script(5), pkg-triggers(5), pkg.conf(5), pkg(8), pkg-add(8), pkg-alias(8), pkg-annotate(8), pkg-audit(8), pkg-autoremove(8), pkg-check(8), pkg-config(8), pkg-create(8), pkg-delete(8), pkg-fetch(8), pkg-help(8), pkg-info(8), pkg-install(8), pkg-key(8), pkg-lock(8), pkg-plugins(8), pkg-query(8), pkg-register(8), pkg-repo(8), pkg-repositories(8), pkg-rquery(8), pkg-search(8), pkg-set(8), pkg-shell(8), pkg-shlib(8), pkg-ssh(8), pkg-stats(8), pkg-triggers(8), pkg-unregister(8), pkg-update(8), pkg-updating(8), pkg-upgrade(8), pkg-version(8), pkg-which(8)

that's the whole friend group. say hi to all of them 🫢✨


and that's the page, bestie πŸŽ€ this edition came from Debian, dated May 27, 2018 β€” so like, yes, she's been serving this exact look since 2018 and she's still booked and busy πŸ’– go clear that cache, you icon πŸ‘‘
πŸ“¦ where this page comes from