brew cleanup doesn't clean ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew

[galad87]

I noticed brew keeps a copy of the files it downloads in ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew , and the "brew doctor" command doesn't clean it.

For example:

[damians@iMac ~]$ brew cleanup
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/3.4.1... (248 files, 50.9MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/x264/r2795... (11 files, 3.2MB)
==> This operation has freed approximately 54.1MB of disk space.

And in the Cache folder there are still:

[damians@iMac ~]$ ls ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
ffmpeg-3.4.1_1.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz x264-r2854.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz

[chdiza]

man brew will show you the -s flag for cleanup.

Even then, cleanup doesn't always get everything.

[vitorgalvao]

The cleanup section of brew’s man page (emphasis mine):

For all installed or specific formulae, remove any older versions from the cellar. In addition, old downloads from the Homebrew download-cache are deleted.

If --prune=days is specified, remove all cache files older than days.

If --dry-run or -n is passed, show what would be removed, but do not actually remove anything.

If -s is passed, scrub the cache, removing downloads for even the latest versions of formulae. Note downloads for any installed formulae will still not be deleted. If you want to delete those too: rm -rf $(brew --cache)

This is expected behaviour. If you want to remove everything, run the suggested rm command.

[galad87]

Thanks for the answer. What's the use of keeping already installed formulae downloads files around?

[chdiza]

In case something goes wrong and you have to reinstall.

[vitorgalvao]

Closing issue as solved (clarified).

[MikeMcQuaid]

@galad87 In future always, always, always fill out the issue template, please.