Original: The five best Linux file system cleaning tools
Author: Jack Wallen
Publication date: January 11, 2012
Translation: A. Krivoshey
Date of transfer: February 2012
Everyone has heard of Windows system cleaning utilities, but few people know that similar programs are available for Linux. Believe it or not, but they exist, and today I want to bring them to your attention. Some you've probably heard of, and their functionality won't be new to you. Each of the utilities below will allow you to keep your Linux file system in order.
This functionality is available in Synaptic (in fact, it is built into apt and many other package managers) - it allows you to get rid of unnecessary configuration files. They usually remain after packages are removed. This feature is very easy to use. Just click the "status" button in the lower left corner of the program window. Next, in the list that appears at the top of the left panel, select "Not Installed (Settings Files Remaining)". Now just mark configuration files that you want to remove and click Apply. Everything is very simple.
This is a handy utility to free up disk space and improve system security. It has versions for Linux and Windows. BleachBit clears various caches, removes cookies, clears browsing history, temporary files, logs, and removes other junk that you probably didn't know about, but that exists on every system. Bleachbit has a wonderful GUI, which makes it easy to choose what you want to remove. Instead of selecting files or file types, you select applications or system lists displayed in a tree structure. In addition, you can specify the drives or directories that the program will work with, and even view an overview of what it will do before these actions are applied to your system. BleachBit is much more powerful than most other utilities, so it needs to be used with care.
GtkOrphan makes it easy to remove unwanted packages from Debian systems. GtkOrphan is not installed by default, so you need to install it first (from Synaptic or from the command line). GtkOrphan is a GUI for deborphan and it scans and removes unnecessary libraries from the system. Depending on how many of them you have on your system, this can free up quite a lot of disk space. Like any application that removes libraries, it must be used with care so as not to remove anything necessary for the operation of the system or programs.
Cruft is a command line utility that scans the system and removes everything that shouldn't be there. It collects most of the results from the dpkg database as well as from the " additional files", which are created during the life of various programs in the system, and removes them. The program has enough a large number of options, including:
-d - search only on the specified disks;
-chroots - do not check the validity of symbolic links in the given directories;
-ignore - ignore specified directories;
-r - create a file with a report
Gconf-Cleaner is a utility that can be compared to Windows registry cleaners. It scans the Gconf database (Gconf Registry - settings database for GNOME) and removes unused and obsolete entries. Gconf-Cleaner is easy to use and, depending on the state of your system, can remove quite a lot of entries. This graphics program and it also requires some care when working with it (as well as when cleaning the registry in Windows). Although I have never experienced any problems with Gconf-Cleaner, it is theoretically possible to remove desired settings gnome. But there is also good news. If you end up ruining your GNOME desktop, you can always delete the GNOME settings directory in your home folder and start over.
Linux has a lot of great Linux system cleanup utilities. Those that are described in this article are easy to use. Just remember that care must always be taken when cleaning up the system, especially when dealing with libraries, dependencies, and anything else that requires root access.
In this article, we will share 6 best CCleaner alternatives for Ubuntu Linux.
One of the most common categories of software on Windows computers is system cleaning and optimization. CCleaner- popular and powerful program for Windows - scans and removes junk files and personal information (such as cache and browsing history), freeing up space and maintaining privacy.
Unfortunately, CCleaner is not suitable for Linux. If you used it on Windows and switched to ubuntu linux(one of the recommended distributions for linux beginners), you are probably already wondering which software be used for the same purpose?
No matter how active you are Ubuntu user or not, if you're looking for a CCleaner alternative, you've come to the right place. In this article, we will share 6 best CCleaner alternatives for Ubuntu Linux.
FSlint is a free and easy to use open source application. source code for searching and cleaning various types garbage in file system linux. It has both a GTK+GUI and a command line interface allowing you to automate certain operations through scripting.
Remove Duplicate Files in Linux It helps remove/remove duplicate files in Linux, find and remove empty directories, unused temporary files, unwanted and problematic file and filename corruptions, bad symlinks, thus keeping your system clean. By completing all the above operations, you will restore disk space that was overloaded with unnecessary and unwanted files located in your file system.
To install FSlint on your Linux systems, use the appropriate package manager to install it as shown below:
sudo apt install fslint [For Debian/Ubuntu] yum install fslint [For CentOS/RHEL] dnf install fslint [For Fedora 22+]
Sweeper is a simple and standard system cleaner for KDE. It is used to clean up unwanted traces of user activity on the system to protect your privacy and free up disk space by deleting unused temporary files. It can delete cookies, history, cache, image thumbnail cache, and also clear application and document history.
Sweeper System Cleaner To install the system cleaner Sweeper on your Linux systems, use the appropriate package manager as follows:
sudo apt install sweeper [For Debian/Ubuntu] yum install sweeper [For CentOS/RHEL] dnf install sweeper [For Fedora 22+]
Ubuntu Cleaner is also a free, easy to use cleaner Ubuntu systems open source. This program frees disk space and gets rid of all private information from your system such as browser cache. It also removes: APT cache, thumbnail cache, unused packages, old kernels as well as old installers. Thus, it keeps your system clean and helps you free up disk space.
Ubuntu System Cleaner To install Ubuntu Cleaner on Ubuntu and its derivatives, use the following PPA to install as shown below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerardpuig/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install ubuntu-cleaner
GCleaner is a free, clean, simple and fast open source system cleaner for Ubuntu Linux and its derivatives. This is a port of CCleaner developed with Vala, GTK+, Granite and Glib/GIO. Like all the above system cleaners, it protects your privacy and makes your computer faster and safer to use.
GCleaner for Ubuntu To install GCleaner on Ubuntu and its derivatives, use the following PPA to install as shown below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libredeb/gcleaner sudo apt update sudo apt install gcleaner
Please note that you can also use the Ubuntu Tweak Tool, however the project is no longer actively maintained - install and use it at your own risk.
This is all! In this article, we have presented 6 best CCleaner alternatives for Ubuntu Linux. If we missed any software that should be on this list, please let us know in the comments.
Today I want to touch on the topic of cleaning the system from garbage. Let's take Ubuntu as an example.
No matter what they write about what linux good and how well everything is thought out in it, after long work with the system: installation / removal of programs, updates, work in applications, a sufficient amount of garbage accumulates in the OS. This includes the package manager cache, browser cache, various unused packages, program settings, etc. In most cases, you do not need all this and only takes up space on your hard drive.
Naturally, all garbage can be cleaned using the terminal, or you can use a convenient program that will do everything itself. This is the Ubuntu Tweak program. In addition to cleaning the system, it has a large number of other functions for Ubuntu settings, but in today's article we will not touch on them.
Let's install the program first. Despite the fact that Ubuntu Tweak is a fairly popular system tuning utility and has been around for almost nine years, it is still missing from the standard repository and therefore we need to first add the developers repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
Update cache:
sudo apt-get update
And install Ubuntu Tweak:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak
Now we can use the program.
We launch the program through the Dash menu and go to the "Cleaning" tab
The working window is divided into two parts. On the left is a tree with points, this is what you can clear with using Ubuntu Tweek. We mark what is needed, I recommend marking everything. After that, click "Scan" in the lower right corner of the window.
After scanning, a list of found garbage will appear on the right side of the window.
It also needs to be ticked and now, to start cleaning the system, press the "Clear" button, which is also located in the lower right corner.
The program will ask for an administrator password. We enter and wait for the end of the cleaning.
Although Ubuntu is a stable system, everything is of course relative, but you also need to periodically do something with pens, even if the program will do it, but you still need to run it with pens paired with your head. Sometimes excess garbage accumulates in the system, which remains after the removal of programs, unnecessary dependencies, etc. Of course, you can do everything using the Terminal, for example, with the commands:
sudo apt-get autoremove
given command removes unremoved dependencies on already removed packages,
sudo apt-get clean
cleaning up the /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory.
After updating the kernels, the old kernels do not go anywhere, but rest peacefully next to the new kernel. Therefore, they also need to be removed and it is best to do this very useful Ubuntu Tweak. In addition to cleaning the system, the program also has very different usefulness.
With this tweaker you can:
Program installation:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak
After installation, the program will appear at: Applications - System -
Another one useful program to clean up the system is called BleachBit. It's in the Ubuntu repositories and you can install it directly from the Ubuntu Software Center.
"Softina" allows you to remove unused interface languages.
With BleachBit, you can clear the RAM and swap memory.
The program can delete temporary files, cookles, the list of downloaded files and passwords of various browsers (Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chrome and others). In addition, the program optimizes the used databases.
The program also cleans the history and cache of Gnome, Nautilus, Adobe Flash.
BleachBit makes it possible to remove all Thumbs.db files that appear as a result of the Windows OS.
In this topic, we will talk about such a feature as Ubuntu System Cleanup.
We have already discussed the topic of cleaning the Ubuntu GNU/Linux system, but this lesson has been updated with new versions of Ubuntu and added a number of additional tools.
If you want to clean up your Ubuntu system, you need to follow these simple steps to remove junk files.
This is another built-in feature, but this time it is not used in the Synaptic Package Manager. This function is easily used in the "Terminal". Now open your terminal and enter the following command
Then enter the clean clean command. This command will help you easily clean up the deleted ones. deb packages that "apt" caches when installing or updating programs. To continue cleaning the system, enter the following command in a terminal window:
After that you will be able to use the autoremove command. The autoremove command is designed to remove packages installed in cache dependencies after the original package has been removed from the system. To use autoremove tye in a terminal window, type the following:
sudo apt-get autoremove
Cleaning the Ubuntu system also includes checking for various "junk" files that remain during the installation of programs.
To do this, we need to install localepurge. Automatically delete unnecessary local data. This is a simple script that will reclaim disk space wasted on unnecessary local data and localized man pages. It will be automatically called after any installation run is completed.
Installing localepurge on Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install localepurge
After installing any program, apt-get install localepurge will remove all translation files and translate manual pages in languages you can't read.
If you want to customize localepurge you need to edit /etc/locale.nopurge
This can save you several megabytes of disk space, depending on the packages you have installed.
I am trying to install dicus using apt-get
sudo apt-get install discus
Once the installation is complete, you will see something like below
Localepurge: disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 41860K
If you want to remove orphaned packages, you need to install the deborphan package.
Installing deborphan in Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install deborphan
Open a terminal and enter the following command
sudo deborphan | xargs sudo apt-get -y remove --purge
GtkOrphan (Perl / Gtk2 application for debian systems) is graphic tool, which analyzes the status of your installations and looks for orphaned libraries. It implements a GUI interface for deborphan, adding the ability to remove packages.
sudo apt-get install gtkorphan
Simplified Debian package management. Wajig is a single command line wrapper around the apt, apt-cache, dpkg, /etc/init.d and other scripts, designed for ease of use and providing extensive documentation for all of its features.
With the right sudo configuration, most (if not all) package installations as well as build tasks can be done from the user's shell. Wajig is also suitable for general system administration. The Gnome GUI command 'gjig' is also included in the package.
Open a terminal and run the following command
sudo apt-get install wajig
Debfoster maintains a list of installed packages that were explicitly requested and not installed as dependencies. The arguments are completely optional, debfoster can be invoked as such after every run of dpkg and/or apt-get.
Alternatively, you can use debfoster to install and remove packages by listing the packages in command line. Packages with a suffix are removed, and packages without a suffix are installed.
If a new package is encountered, or debfoster notices that a package that was once a dependency is now an orphan, it will ask you what to do with it. If you choose to keep it, debfoster will just take note and continue. If you decide this package is not interesting enough, it will be removed as soon as debfoster is done asking questions. If your choice causes other packages to become orphans, more questions will arise.
Open a terminal and run the following command
sudo apt-get install debfoster
Use the following command to create the guardian source file
You can always edit the /var/lib/debfosterkeepers file which defines the packages you want to keep on your system.
To edit the file type of keepers
sudo vi /var/lib/debfoster/keepers
To force debfoster to remove all packages that are not in this list or dependencies of packages in this list. It will also add all packages in this list that are not installed. So your system will match this list. Do it
To keep track of what you installed additionally, do this from time to time:
Displays a graphic of your disk usage. Du.xdiskusage is handy program, indicating that it is using all free disk space. It is based on the "xdu" program project written by Philip K. Dykstro. The changes have been made so "du" runs for you and you can display free disk space and create a PostScript version of display.xdiskusage if you want to easily see where the space is on your hard drive.
sudo apt-get install xdiskusage
If you want to open this application you need to use the following command
Once it opens you will see the following screen
Cleaning up an Ubuntu system, as you may have noticed, includes freeing up disk space. The BleachBit program does a great job of this, freeing up disk space quickly and guarding your privacy relentlessly. Free cache, delete cookies, clear your Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and throw away unwanted objects you didn't know about. Designed for Linux systems and Windows, it cleans thousands of applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and more. In addition to simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. BleachBit is better than free, open source.
Open a terminal and run the following command
sudo apt-get install bleachbit
You can also use Ubuntu-Tweak to clean up your system.
Ubuntugeek
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