How To Clear Snap Cache and Remove Uninstalled Snaps on Ubuntu

In this article, we will guide you through the process of clearing your Snap cache and removing uninstalled Snaps on Ubuntu. This is an essential task for maintaining a clean and efficient system, especially if you frequently install and uninstall Snap packages.

Understanding Snap and Snap Cache

Snap is a software packaging and deployment system developed by Canonical for operating systems that use the Linux kernel. The packages, called ‘snaps’, and the tool for using them, ‘snapd’, work across a range of Linux distributions allowing distribution-agnostic upstream software packaging.

When you install a Snap, Snapd downloads the package and stores a copy in its cache. This is beneficial because if you need to reinstall the Snap, Snapd can use the cached copy instead of downloading it again. However, if you uninstall a Snap and don’t plan on reinstalling it, the cached copy is just wasting disk space. That’s why it’s a good idea to clear your Snap cache regularly.

Clearing Snap Cache

To clear your Snap cache, follow the steps below:

1. Open a Terminal

You can open a terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or searching for ‘Terminal’ in your system’s application launcher.

2. Run the Cache Clearing Command

Enter the following command to remove all files in the cache directory:

sudo sh -c 'rm -rf /var/lib/snapd/cache/*'

This command uses rm, which is a standard command for removing files and directories in Unix-like operating systems. The -rf option tells rm to remove files and directories recursively (-r) and without asking for confirmation (-f). /var/lib/snapd/cache/* is the path to the cache directory of snapd.

3. Alternative Command

Alternatively, you can use the following command to remove the files one by one:

sudo find /var/lib/snapd/cache/ -exec rm -v {} \;

This command uses find to search for files in the specified directory (/var/lib/snapd/cache/). The -exec option allows you to execute a command on each found file. The command rm -v {} \; removes each file and uses the -v (verbose) option to print a message for each removed file.

4. Enter Sudo Mode

If you encounter any issues with the above commands, try entering sudo mode completely with sudo -i before executing the commands.

Please note that removing the cache files will result in a fresh download when you reinstall a snap.

Removing Old Snap Versions

Snapd keeps up to 20 older versions of a snap by default. If you want to reclaim more storage, you can remove these older versions using the following script:

#!/bin/bash
# Removes old revisions of snaps
# CLOSE ALL SNAPS BEFORE RUNNING THIS
set -eu
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 snap list --all | awk '/disabled/{print $1, $3}' |
 while read snapname revision; do
 snap remove "$snapname" --revision="$revision"
 done

This script will remove the disabled snaps and their corresponding revisions. The snap list --all command lists all snaps, the awk command filters out the disabled ones, and the snap remove command removes each disabled snap.

Conclusion

In conclusion, clearing your Snap cache and removing old Snap versions can help you reclaim disk space and keep your system clean. However, please remember that these operations may result in the loss of user settings and dependencies. Always make sure to back up any important data before performing these tasks. If you’re migrating from a snap package to a native package, using sudo snap remove --purge $PACKAGE may be more suitable. However, this command may not work for uninstalled packages. For more information about Snap, please refer to the official Snap documentation.