Version 3.0 — Automated system cleanup for Linux, with multi-distro support and configurable cleanup levels.
LinuxJanitor is a Bash utility that consolidates routine maintenance tasks—package manager caches, user caches, container images, journal logs, and development tool artifacts—into a single, repeatable workflow. It supports interactive menus, non-interactive automation, dry runs, and per-user or system-wide cleanup.
- Three cleanup levels — Safe, Standard (default), and Aggressive, each with distinct scope and risk profile
- Multi-distro support — Automatic detection for Arch, Debian, Fedora/RHEL, openSUSE, and Gentoo families
- Interactive or scripted — Menu-driven UI, CLI flags, and cron-friendly non-interactive mode
- Dry run — Preview actions and estimated space savings before making changes
- HTML reports — Post-run summaries with space freed, mode, and cleanup breakdown
- Persistent configuration — Settings saved to
~/.config/system-cleanup/config.conf - Multi-user administration — Target a specific user or clean all regular users on the system
- Container runtime support — Docker and Podman pruning in aggressive mode
- Browser, pip, and npm caches — Targeted cleanup via dedicated config toggles
- Protected paths — Editor, terminal, and font caches are never removed
| Family | Examples |
|---|---|
| Arch-based | Arch Linux, Manjaro, CachyOS, EndeavourOS |
| Debian-based | Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS |
| RHEL-based | Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux |
| SUSE-based | openSUSE Leap, Tumbleweed |
| Other | Gentoo |
Low-risk maintenance. Removes temporary and regenerable caches only.
- Browser caches, thumbnails, and temp files
- Suitable for conservative or first-time use
Default mode. Balances disk recovery with everyday development workflows.
- Everything in Safe mode
- Package manager cache (apt, pacman, dnf, and related tools)
- Trash, journal logs (retains the last two weeks by default)
- Snap, Flatpak, Telegram, JavaScript package managers (pnpm, yarn, bun)
- paccache, debtap, pkgfile (Arch), coredumps, fwupd,
/tmpand/var/tmp
Extended cleanup for experienced users. May require re-downloading dependencies or data.
- Everything in Standard mode
- Development caches: npm, Cargo, Go modules, Gradle, Maven
- Docker/Podman images and optional volume pruning
- Old kernel removal (Debian/Fedora families)
- Electron app caches (Discord, Slack, Spotify, VS Code workspace history)
/var/log— removes old compressed and rotated logs; truncates large log files- debtap and pkgfile caches (Arch)
Recommendation: Run with
--dry-runbefore using aggressive mode on a new system.
Downloads the script to ~/.local/bin and sets executable permissions:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ind4skylivey/LinuxJanitor/main/install.sh | bashEnsure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH:
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin"git clone https://github.com/ind4skylivey/LinuxJanitor.git
cd LinuxJanitor
chmod +x system-cleanup-enhanced.sh
./system-cleanup-enhanced.shRunning without arguments opens the interactive menu.
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--safe |
Safe cleanup only |
--standard |
Standard cleanup (default) |
--aggressive |
Extended cleanup including dev and container artifacts |
-i, --interactive |
Confirm before each major step |
-y, --yes |
Non-interactive mode (suitable for automation) |
-d, --dry-run |
Preview actions without deleting files |
--no-backup |
Skip backup generation |
-u, --user USER |
Run cleanup for a specific user |
-a, --all-users |
Clean all regular users on the system |
-h, --help |
Show help |
--version |
Show version |
# Standard cleanup with confirmation at each step
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --standard -i
# Aggressive cleanup, fully automated
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --aggressive -y
# Preview aggressive cleanup without making changes
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --aggressive --dry-run
# Clean another user's caches
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --user john --standard
# Clean all users (interactive confirmation per user)
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --all-users
# Preview cleanup for all users
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --all-users --dry-runWhen using --user, the script runs with your current permissions. Use sudo if you need access to another user's files.
On first run, LinuxJanitor creates a configuration file at:
~/.config/system-cleanup/config.conf
You can enable or disable individual cleanup categories (browser cache, Docker, old kernels, Snap, Flatpak, and others) and adjust settings such as journal retention and paccache keep count. Changes persist across sessions.
HTML reports are written to ~/.config/system-cleanup/reports/. The script automatically removes reports, logs, and backups older than 30–90 days.
--all-users iterates over regular system accounts (excluding service users such as root, daemon, and mysql), prompting for confirmation before cleaning each user unless -y is set.
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh --all-users # Interactive
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh -a --dry-run # Preview only
system-cleanup-enhanced.sh -a -y # Auto-confirm all usersUser home directories are resolved via getent passwd, so user-specific paths (.cache, .config, and similar) are handled correctly.
- Use
--dry-runto review planned actions before running cleanup. - Aggressive mode can remove development dependencies, container volumes, and old kernels.
- Protected cache directories (Neovim, Helix, Kitty, fontconfig, and others) are never deleted.
- The authors provide this tool as-is. Test on non-critical systems first and maintain backups of important data.
LinuxJanitor uses bats-core for automated tests.
chmod +x scripts/run-tests.sh
./scripts/run-tests.shThe runner uses a system-installed bats when available, or vendors bats-core into tests/.deps/ on first run.
CI runs the same suite on every push and pull request via .github/workflows/test.yml.
MIT License. See the script header for details.
Maintained by iL1v3y.