How to clear all cache files in linux server ( RHEL 5)

Question

How can i clear all cache and buffered files in linux server (RHEL 5) ?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

3

in this post it is explained how to do it:

deleting linux cached ram

but be sure to read the complete post for why or why not to clear the caches.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

1

answered Jan 30 '10 at 11:33

Christian

4,773

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '10 at 11:31

2

As root: echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

answered Jan 30 '10 at 11:31

James

7,809

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 26 '13 at 03:14

I had the same concerns about a heavy-handed cache on an embedded box running 2.6.15 (which does not have the proc file mentioned above). I did some experiments and found that one way to force the cache to clear is to create a ramdisk, fill it up with a huge temp file, and then delete the file. Works perfectly. Of course, what I proved was that Linux will indeed release the cache when absolutely ncessary. BTW changing swappiness to 0 or 100 had absolutely no observable effect on meminfo whatsoever.

How to clear all cache files in linux server ( RHEL 5)

3 Answers3