clean
diskdiet clean¶
Free space: remove what's old, after showing the list and asking
Synopsis¶
clean removes what diskdiet scan reports as old enough:
npm, Yarn, Bun cached packages not changed in --older-than (default 30d) pnpm packages no project uses (pnpm store prune), and old metadata Docker unused images, stopped containers and build cache older than --older-than; unused volumes only with --volumes pip, Cargo, Go cached downloads and builds not changed in --older-than Gradle, Maven downloaded Gradle versions and caches; Maven artifacts uv the whole cache (uv cache clean), only with --all Playwright, older browser and app versions; the newest always stays Cypress Xcode DerivedData and device support files (never Archives) Simulators simulators for iOS versions no longer installed, old caches CocoaPods, SwiftPM old pod versions and cached Swift packages Android SDK system images no emulator uses; older NDKs and build tools Homebrew old downloads in brew --cache (installed software stays) node_modules, in projects where nothing has changed for --older-than target (Rust, Maven)
Everything removed from a cache is downloaded again when a project needs it. It shows what it will remove and asks first, unless --yes is given.
Examples¶
diskdiet clean
diskdiet clean --older-than 7d --only npm
diskdiet clean --all --skip node_modules --yes
Options¶
--all count everything, whatever its age
-n, --dry-run show what would be removed, and remove nothing
--force clean even while a package manager is installing
-h, --help help for clean
--json print JSON
--keep stringArray leave this node_modules or target folder alone (repeatable)
--older-than string count things unchanged for this long as old (e.g. 7d, 2w, 12h) (default "30d")
--only strings only these sources: npm, yarn, pnpm, bun, pip, uv, cargo, go, gradle, maven, playwright, cypress, xcode, simulators, cocoapods, swiftpm, android, homebrew, docker, node_modules, target
--projects stringArray folder to search for node_modules (repeatable; default: your home folder)
--skip strings leave out these sources
--trash move node_modules and target folders to the Trash instead of deleting them (space is freed when the Trash is emptied)
--volumes also remove unused Docker volumes (they can hold databases)
-y, --yes don't ask before removing
SEE ALSO¶
- diskdiet - See where your developer disk space went, and get it back safely