Sometimes, our virtual machines, such as Ubuntu and Debian,are installed on the E drive. Simply cleaning up the cache won’t remove it. Here’s a great method to successfully clean up and release the cache.

I. First, check which directory is taking up space

Execute:

df -h

Check which directory is full: /, /home, or /mnt/e.

Then check the main directories:

sudo du -xh / --max-depth=1 | sort -h

The directories that usually take up space are:

• /var

• /home

• /usr

• /opt

• /tmp

II. APT cache cleanup (usually releases 1~5GB)

sudo apt clean
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt autoremove -y

Notes:

• apt clean: Deletes all downloaded deb package caches
• apt autoclean: Deletes expired packages
• apt autoremove: Deletes unused dependencies

Cache location:

/var/cache/apt/archives/

III. Clean up journal logs

Check size:

sudo du -sh /var/log/journal

Limit to 200MB:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=200M

Or only keep 7 days:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=7d

IV. Clean up /var/log old logs

sudo du -sh /var/log/*

If you see some huge files:

sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/syslog
sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/kern.log
sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/auth.log

Or:

sudo rm -f /var/log/*.gz
sudo rm -f /var/log/*.[0-9]

V. pip / conda / python cache

pip cache:

pip cache purge

Or manually:

rm -rf ~/.cache/pip

conda (if installed):

conda clean --all -y

VI. CUDA / Compilation cache

NVCC / torch cache:

rm -rf ~/.nv
rm -rf ~/.cache/torch
rm -rf ~/.cache/nv
rm -rf ~/.cache

CMake / build intermediate files (very large):

For example, you have:

~/GOSK/build
~/xxx/build

Directly:

rm -rf build/

Or:

find ~ -name build -type d -exec rm -rf {} +

VII. Clean up Docker (if installed)

docker system df
docker system prune -a

This will delete all unused images

VIII. Find 10GB+ files (recommended)

sudo find / -type f -size +10G 2>/dev/null

Or:

sudo du -ah / | sort -rh | head -n 50

IX. If you use WSL

If your Debian is WSL and placed on E disk:

Even if you delete the file, the virtual disk file .vhdx will not automatically shrink!

You need to do:

Turn off WSL

In Windows PowerShell (administrator):

wsl --shutdown

Compress virtual disk

Open:

Disk Management → Operation → Attach VHD Find your Debian’s .vhdx

Then:

Right-click → Compress Volume

Or use:

diskpart
select vdisk file="E:\xxx\ext4.vhdx"
attach vdisk readonly
compact vdisk
detach vdisk
exit

Otherwise, your disk will still look full