Clean up Linux

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Although Linux does not clutter up like Windows, it may be useful to occasionally clean up Linux. Especially in systems with a smaller hard drive it can be beneficial to clean Linux. Occasionally cleaning up Linux does have to be done on a daily basis or weekly basis, 1 time per month is more than sufficient.

Linux Mint can be cleaned up by means of the following:

Terminal commands

There are 3 terminal commands which you can use top clean up Linux Mint. Each terminal will be explained about what they do and remove. All three commands contribute to free up disk space.

sudo apt-get autoclean
- This terminal command deletes all .deb files from /var/cache/apt/archives. It basically cleans up the apt-get cache.
sudo apt-get clean
- This terminal command is used to free up the disk space by cleaning up downloaded .deb files from the local repository.
sudo apt-get autoremove
- This terminal command used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and no longer needed by those packages.

Setup Synaptic correctly

Another setting which should be checked and, if needed, set correctly can be found in Synaptic. To check, and correct this setting, open Synaptic and go to:

Setting > Preferences.

This will open the Preferences menu. Now click on the tab Files and check if this option is enabled: Delete downloaded packages after installation. If this option is not enabled, click it to enable it. After that, click the on button Delete Cached package Files to clear the cache.

Now click on Status in the left sidebar of Synaptic and check if there are any packages listed. If there are any packages listed, mark them for removal and click on Apply. This will remove all applications which are already removed.

Deborphan

Another way to clean up Linux is using a powertool called Deborphan. Deborphan can be used as a terminal command line tool or in combination with a GUI application called GtkOrphan.

Click here to learn more about Deborphan.