.cache folder doesn't empty

[NoHo Hank]

Hi there. We are trying to clear the cache by rm -rfv ~/.cache/thumbnails. But it doesn't delete all files.
Even with sudo rm -rfv ~/.cache/thumbnails it doesn't.

For now there are still thumbs made from Libre office files, some are even readible. After every restart other old thumbs appear out of nowhere, made from any old file used long ago.
How get rid of them all? Cinnamon 20.3

[mikeflan]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
What do your thumb files look like? What is the name of them? Do they look like this:

What is the response of your terminal command?
When I do this in a terminal it deletes that thumb file shown above:

Code: Select all

$ rm -fv gno*
removed 'gnome-exe-thumbnailer.files'
:~/.cache/thumbnails$ 

BTW, perhaps it is not worth worrying about these few files.

[NoHo Hank]

hi Mike, thanks for the welcome, happy to be here.
My /home/mint/.cache/thumbnails has only got 3 folders in it. No gnome-exe-thumbnailer.files

When i delete a file i expect it to be be deleted. Not to pop up again as a thumbnail after months.
Guess that is just silly me?!

outcome

Code: Select all

mint@Mint:~$  sudo rm -rfv ~/.cache/thumbnails
[sudo] password for mint:         
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/large/a0065171cbafc2f3043815bc3a7607ff.png'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/large/835731c2950a11725326b9ecaf81e3fd.png'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/large/428daeaa83fc6d26aebc1792b253ced4.png'

ETC

Code: Select all

removed directory '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/large'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/normal/76f9991bc00fd7f9f8c3fa812b809de9.png'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/normal/52b46a7fa18d79df85302cf5dfdd5fae.png'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/normal/b219c5c3a719bbca0d91e3e594df0b0a.png'

ETC

Code: Select all

removed directory '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/normal'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/a5ea472eed47c3330b7da151ec20ef93.png'
removed '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/161e992d891d2ec6ced7e22f849f4c86.png'
removed directory '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory'
removed directory '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails/fail'
removed directory '/home/mint/.cache/thumbnails'
mint@Mint:~$ 

[mikeflan]

Great. So it is working fine. I believe the .cache directory in your home directory is meant for programs to install configuration or information files into. So I think we should expect for files to reappear as we run our favorite programs. I think you can continually delete those files and folders with no or little adverse affects, but why do that? My .cache directory is 780 MB. I think I did delete it a while back, but generally I just leave it alone.

[smurphos]

For now there are still thumbs made from Libre office files, some are even readible. After every restart other old thumbs appear out of nowhere, made from any old file used long ago.
How get rid of them all? Cinnamon 20.3

Remove the libreoffice-thumbnailer?

Note doing thing will also remove the Library (Thingy) app - that particular thumbnailer is installed as a dependency of this app.

See - viewtopic.php?p=2170841#p2170841

[t42]

I believe the .cache directory in your home directory is meant for programs to install configuration or information files into.

That's not true maybe except a statement that mikeflan believe in what they said.

[rene]

Rather expect this to be an issue of an in-memory copy being synced back as long as whatever that cached it still runs. If so this would be dealt with by logging out, from the graphical login screen switching to a virtual console with Ctrl+Alt+F1, logging in as your user and with your normal password there and running from there sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/thumbnails.

exit and Ctrl+Alt+F7 back to the graphical login screen; when you then login graphically (and maybe open e.g. Nemo or whatever) the directory should be automatically created again but not with old content. Untested due to fairly fundamental personal disinterest in e.g. graphical file-managers. If still not you may need to (disable autologin for a bit and) reboot to a login screen without the user in question having ever been logged in and then do the above; it's in these logind days sometimes hard to in fact kill shit...

[NoHo Hank]

Hi rene, i've followed the procedure. Still a lot (60) of thumbs re-appear in .cache/thumbnails/large. They are newly made so maybe i've opened some folders and they've been created just then?

[rene]

That sounds likely yes. If you open a folder in a graphical file-manager the thumbnailer goes to work generating thumbnails for all its content and as such 60 isn't necessarily a lot.

Note that if you don't want thumbnails period, it'll be the better option to disable them and/or remove the thumbnailer(s) outright. Latter if possible due to dependencies; what, how and where would be edition (Cinnamon, Xfce, MATE) dependent; on Xfce I'd disable thumbnailing simply in the file-manager's settings. Other editions, mileage may vary, but smurphos, this forum's search and/or Google's may be able to advise.