Joomla User Manual

Cache Files¶

Cache files are temporary files that are created to improve the performance of your site. You need to ensure that cache files that have expired, so they are no longer needed, are removed from the system. Otherwise you will eventually run out of disk space.

Expired cache files can be purged from the Administrator interface or thr Command Line interface (CLI).

Purge - Administrator Method¶

From the Home Dashboard

• Select the Cache option in the System panel.
• In the Maintenace: Clear Cache page select the Clear Expired Cache button in the Toolbar.

Purge - Command Line Method¶

Open a terminal window and cd to the cli directory in the root of your site. If you do not know what CLI commands are available issue the following command:

php joomla.php

You will see a list of commands available. The cache command is:

php joomla.php cache:clean

There should be a green confirmation message or perhaps a maroon error message.

Automatically Purging Expired Cache Files¶

You can automatically purge expired cache files using a cron job. Hosting services make this easy by providing a form to select how frequently a job runs and the command to use. So you might choose set the cron to run a 05:00 every day with the following command:

 /usr/local/bin/ea-php82 /home/username/public_html/cli/joomla.php cache:clean

Most cron job managers allow you to enter an email address to which the cron output will be sent. If you do not want a message sent append > /dev/null 2>&1 to the command.

The PHP version used on the command line is often different from that used for delivery of a website. It might be incompatible with Joomla. So use the full path to the version of PHP you wish to use rather than php alone.