What's the best way to really clean /var/cache/yum?

[dd_wizard]

Is this normal after executing "sudo yum clean all?"

$ du -hs /var/cache/yum/*/*
143M	/var/cache/yum/x86_64/12
269M	/var/cache/yum/x86_64/13
379M	/var/cache/yum/x86_64/14

Most of the space seems to be taken up by a bunch of *.sqlite files, but there are seven old *.rpm files as well. Is it safe to delete the old *.rpm files? What's up with all those big *.sqlite files?

Thanks,
dd_wizard

[Hlingler]

'yum clean all' does not clean up disabled repos. Enable any repo recently used but now disabled, then try 'yum clean all' again. Don't forget to disable those repo(s) again.

Newer versions of YUM retain far more data than older versions, no matter what you do.

HTH,
V

[kurtdriver]

I didn't know that, thanks Hinlgler, maybe doing yum --enablerepo=* clean all would do it?

[Hlingler]

Yes, but if you use '--enablerepo=*', be prepared for a possibly loooong wait, especially of any repo is down/unavailable: YUM seems to check for repo availability before it cleans it's database.

V

EDIT: In other words: YUM will first fetch metadata for any repos which it has none, then promptly clean all. Stupid YUM...

[dd_wizard]

Hmm, I looked around in the subdirectories, and I'll need to enable all the repos for F12 and F13 as well as those for F14. Does that work?

Thanks,
dd_wizard

[Hlingler]

I would not do that. In this case, I'd manually erase them (F12/13). What use are they anyway?

V

[dd_wizard]

Ah, that was actually my first thought. Judicious use of rm -fr would be a lot faster, but will that confuse yum for the F14 directory?

Thanks again,
dd_wizard

[Hlingler]

YUM should not be "confused" because you delete obsolete cache stuff. But in all honesty: I don't know for sure. YUM is fairly stupid.

I would not worry. Just manually purge the cruft.

V

[dd_wizard]

Thanks Hlingler, all gone! Hopefully I didn't break anything.

dd_wizard

[vallimar]

I semi-regularly just wipe out /var/cache/yum with 'rm -rf'.
It does no harm as yum will re-create and re-download metadata as needed.
Obviously though, if you have yum set to cache downloaded rpm's for whatever
reason and wish to keep them, that won't work for you.