View source for Purging expired cache files

{{RightTOC}}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.

==Manually purging expired cache files==
Expired cache files can be manually purged at any time using one of the following procedures:
* From the Administrator, use the [[Help25:Site Maintenance Purge Expired Cache|Purge Expired Cache]] option.
* From the command line, run the <tt>garbagecron.php</tt> script, described below.

==Purging expired cache files from the command line==
The purge expired cache files CLI application is located in the <tt>cli</tt> directory in your site's root directory (that is, the same directory as your configuration.php file).  In this directory you will find a file called <tt>garbagecron.php</tt>.  Simply enter this command to purge expired cache files:
<source lang="bash">
php garbagecron.php
</source>
This program does not produce any output unless some sort of error occurs.

==Automatically purging expired cache files==
If your host supports it, you can set up an automatic process to purge expired cache files on a regular basis.

Whilst the specifics are beyond the scope of this article, in general you will merely have to enter the relevant command into the [[Wikipedia:cron|cron]] job manager and specify the time or times on which the job is to be run.  You will probably need to include the full path to the indexer.  For example, like this
<source lang="bash">
php /var/www/myjoomla/cli/garbagecron.php
</source>

Most cron job managers will allow you to enter an email address to which a report will be sent if an error occurs.  Because <tt>garbagecron.php</tt> does not produce any output unless an error occurs, you will not receive an email if the program runs successfully.

==Notes==
* Caching is switched off by default.  To enable the cache for your site see [[Help25:Site Global Configuration]].
<noinclude>[[Category:Cache]]</noinclude>