Where are the temp files located and how do I get to them to clean them out? What else can one do clean out the cache and other maintenance chores?

it always depends on the app, sotrware, os, system, whatever. There is no common way. But anyway there is a dir named /tmp to store temp files. A lot of apps can be configured, so you can tell them where to put those files. Also there is a variable TEMP. Cache is another thing and it always depend on the app which uses/manages it.

systemd gives you means to care about temp files.
You can create your own conf file in /etc/tmpfiles.d/
or copy an existing system conf file and modify it.

1 members found this post helpful.

poncedeleon,

Some temporary files are located in /tmp.

To delete temporary files:

To clean cache:

In addition, you may wish to check on how much of your root partition is available.

I came across a full root partition on a friend’s Linux Mint PC the other day. This means that when you try to enter your password, nothing happens apart from the same password box being presented repeatedly in a doom loop.

To check how much space is left use the following command:

The root cause (ha, ha,ha!) of the problem was that redundant kernels had filled up the root partition.

NB Please tread very carefully when removing old kernels!!

My latest kernel is 5.15.0-82 (see attached screenshot). Below it is the previous 5.15.0-79.

Below these two are kernels which can be deleted (see instructions below).

See tip #9 at:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspo...lean-mint.html

“Remove old kernels" in the cleaning tips above. This reduced the used space from 96% to 64%.

Removal of specific redundant kernels

9.2. You can also remove a specific redundant kernel. Like this:

a. Launch Update Manager. In the toolbar of Update Manager: View - Linux kernels

This may take some time. Then a warning window pops up. Ignore it and click "Continue" in order to proceed.

b. Ignore the button labelled Remove Kernels... , because that button is meant for mass removal.
Just click on the kernel that you want to delete. Then click on the "Remove" button.

NB: I strongly recommend to leave the latest redundant old kernel in your system, just to be on the safe side!
It never hurts to have a spare kernel that's known to work well.

c. Now reboot your computer.

Automatic removal of old redundant kernels

9.3. The easiest and recommended way to prevent an accumulation of old redundant kernels, is to enable the automatic feature for removing obsolete kernels in Update Manager via Edit > Preferences > Automation > Automatic maintenance > Remove obsolete kernels and dependencies.

I hope this helps.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Since you (again) don't tell us version/distro of Linux, we can't give you much. Better question is WHY you ask, because are you actually having a problem??? In the past 20 years, I've NEVER had to manually flush such things due to any system issue.

Bleachbit looks nice?

Before backing up my home folder I always remove ~/.thumbnails ( it can ge quite big, for instance as of writing this it stands at 640M+ ), also ~/.cache

Agreed. Bleachbit works much in the same way that the "CCleaner" app works in Windows.

As TB0ne stated, Linux can keep its nose clean without external help. Leave bleaching to wannabe operating systems.

1 members found this post helpful.

I used to mount /tmp on tmpfs.

Not entirely true. If it was true, we wouldn't have the likes of apt's clean and autoclean options, now would we ?

Regardless of the OS in question (*nix systems included) yes- they all gather dustballs in areas where we don't usually look. Despite what others might say, running programs like Bleachbit will at the least free up some space in areas/folders that you might not have known even existed.

This is true exactly because apt can take care of distfiles and obsolete packages, and it "knows" what it is doing, unlike some external application. Admin can automate apt tasks, run it as weekly or monthly cronjobs. All my desktops/laptops run Gentoo, distfiles are stored in my media server and shared over NFS, this server runs monthly cronjob and cleans out obsolete distfiles. Now tell me I should use bleachbit instead. LOL
Running apt clean (native tool) is no harder than running this bleachbit (third party application I wouldn't trust). Sorry, but you are not making sense to me.