Greetings,
Is necessary system clean up and any maintenance steps done as it happens on Windows OS? If so can you help me give some tips or commands which to run.
thanks.
The only clean up I do every now and then is clearing the pacman package cache. The EOS welcome app also has a script inside that does it for you in a given interval. Also check the arch wiki for some things you could do.
There usually isn’t that much to do. Update the system, check for warnings or changes inside the update log and just use the system. You can check for orphans and remove them, but that usually isn’t a big deal in terms of maintenance/clean up.
Other than that, it depends on what software you use. But that’s more of a program clean up, than a system clean up.
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This is not windoze, it does not get dirty with use.
Unless you’re low on disc space, you don’t need to do any cleanup. The only maintenance you need to do is updating your system on a somewhat regular basis (once a week is more than sufficient).
In any case, I would strongly recommend against using any “system cleaner” application, like BleachBit and Stacer. Those are pretty awful and they often remove more than what you want, causing your system to break.
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In addition to wiki link given above I found this video quite informative as well. Just one of the many YouTube channels I subscribe to.
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Another recommendation: do not use YouTube as your source of knowledge about Arch. Most of these people (including “EF - Linux Made Simple”) are completely clueless.
What this video suggests is potentially harmful.
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Apologies only meant as a guide, but understand overall its up to user action.
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You don’t have to apologise, you’ve just seen a guide on YouTube and it seemed okay to you… You were tricked by a charlatan.
However, these “Linux YouTubers” ought to apologise for making bad guides that are potentially harmful.
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Thanks friend. That welcome app is not working when i close it. When i open it again its empty and called YAD. I have to restart to use it again.
Thanks for your times and recommendations. i will only use official Arch wiki and what you suggested.
i will be care about Youtube tweaks. Thank you.
To be fair, he is using pretty much only stuff from the arch wiki. Calling him a charlatan is not appropriate and rather false. Some people need these kind of YouTube guides to learn and those guides are a valuable resource for newcomers. I’m always a bit baffled how people constantly complain about these videos, while they probably are the reason many people even try to use Linux.
Yes, it’s better to use a wiki or other official documents, but those videos are a start.
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Apart from the recommendation of Bleachbit, almost everything else in that video is basically copy/paste from the ArchWiki page that he shows at the beginning and refers to with links in the description.
Instead of name calling and rejecting the video altogether, it would be more constructive and instructive to point out where he goes wrong and present a better alternative for it.
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That is incorrect.
Nowhere does Arch wiki suggest using BleachBit. In fact, there is not even mention of yay on Arch wiki. This specific video is harmful, the guy clearly has no clue what he is talking about and is just doing it for YouTube clout.
And you are contributing to its harm by calling it valuable.
A valuable resource on how to mess up your system. So many newbies get in trouble because they watch incorrect videos like that.
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Okay Okay… no one has to like what Ermanno is doing but please stop with this, it leads nowhere.
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I did not mean to initiate disagreement about youtuber guides in this thread. Wish I didn’t post it now!!
Can we just leave argument and let OP decide if further queries to avoid thread going too deep about youtube content vs official wiki.
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Well, that’s the beauty of all of this. BleachBit is as much as an option for anyone as following the arch wiki. Calling it wrong or harmful is just subjective. It’s open source, part of the community repos and therefore absolutely viable. Is it necessary? That depends on the person.
Overall, there is nothing wrong with the videos. I wouldn’t install BleachBit either and would say people shouldn’t use it, but that’s just my opinion. I don’t need others to tell others what they should and shouldn’t use to reach a certain goal.
I use cache emptying regularly. I confess, for such cleaning purposes, I occasionally use a target program. With due care, I don’t think there should be a problem. Of course, heart-right, for system maintenance, who likes what to use, or even do nothing. Of course, I think this is an area where some skill is already required, since Linux package management is a bit more complicated than Windows, maybe it’s closer to macOS.
Even Bleachbit, when configured correctly and moderately and not running as root, can serve its purpose. The user just need to know what checking each box means and if they know the implications of it.
You can hurt yourself with a pair of scissors as well if you don’t know and are not careful with what you are doing.
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If people would stop calling me toxic for warning against malpractices that can demonstrably break their system, then I wouldn’t feel the need to reply to them.
All I did was issue a friendly warning to the OP and to @QAP against following random guides on YouTube.
There is plenty of wrong with presenting software that is very likely to break your system as normal and basic Arch Linux maintenance.
Oh, you don’t need it? Yet, you recommend videos which tell people to use BleachBit… What a complete lack of self-awareness! 
Sorry, but your system not booting because you followed some “guide” on YouTube is not subjective. I have not expressed any subjective opinion in this thread.
Yes, but if someone points out that videos of idiots running around with scissors is not behaviour to model, that person is not being toxic, but is actually issuing a good, reasonable warning.
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Indeed these commands should not be used for regular maintenance:
Delete Pacman Cache
- pacman/yay -Sc/c
Remove Orphan packages
- sudo pacman -Rns $(pacman -Qtdq)
Clean the Cache
- rm -rf .cache/*
Pacman package cache should never be removed completely, you should always keep at least one or 2 in the cache to be able to roll back in an emergency.
And using orphan package removal can indeed cause harm to your system if you do not take care of what exactly it will remove.
And in ~/.cache you have also stuff you may need like for AUR builds from yay (or other AUR helpers)
For package cache, there is paccache that can be used by removing old packages and keep the needed last versions.
There is also an eos-tool in welcome to set this up.
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