Can you please get chocolatey to automatically remove old files from C:\ProgramData\chocolatey.chocolatey after a package has been updated. Thanks

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean?

It does this already in some ways, unless the file has been changed in some way

In the .chocolatey directory there seems to be lots of old directory’s, with names and version numbers of packages that I have set chocolatey to check for updates, both the current version and previous versions.

For example: ChocolateyGUI.0.13.2 ChocolateyGUI.0.15.0 chocolatey-core.extension.1.3.3 chocolatey-core.extension.1.3.1 and more.

Possibly, this issue has been described before. I'd like to see a CLI option that does roughly the same as Homebrew for macOS with brew cleanup, which removes everything, except what is needed for the latest installed version. It removes old installed versions and installers, which may take up a lot of space. I don't know if Chocolatey already does this automatically, but it would be nice to know this.

@erikhuizinga There is choco optimize that does a lot of cleanup and Package Reducer that automatically cleans up packaging. https://chocolatey.org/docs/features-package-reducer

We've also noted #1124 for removing things from the cache.

@zero77 the .chocolatey directory should be ignored, as it is for choco internals and will move likely into a db format at some point.

Yes, moving it into a DB file would be great. Though, for now it would be good if chocolatey could automatically clear .chocolatey of old leftover directories.

Because, each time a package is updated a new directory is created within .chocolatey without the old ones being removed, resulting in a lot of old directories being left behind.

@zero77 the old ones actually have a purpose.

There's also this pending to be approved choco cleaner I wrote :) https://chocolatey.org/packages/choco-cleaner/0.0.1

@zero77 the old ones actually have a purpose.

@ferventcoder I'm going to guess that when you uninstall a package the old C:\ProgramData\chocolatey.chocolatey\packagename files are used to remove additional files and registry keys that might be left over from older versions of the program but not in the current one?

@ferventcoder ok I understand, its necessary until a DB has been developed.

@bcurran3 Thanks, I will have a look, though is it on github.

@zero77, yes. Can be found via the package source link on the Chocolatey page or directly here: https://github.com/bcurran3/ChocolateyPackages/tree/master/choco-cleaner

the old ones actually have a purpose.

Is it possible for you to expound upon that purpose?

It seems to me that the files serve no purpose once a package has been removed.

re: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/chocolatey/choco-cleaner|sort:date/chocolatey/IaQ7_vLX-3s/gkYzNCFQDAAJ

Here's an example off my machine. The files don't take up that much space, less than 7 MB, but my natural curiosity wants to know how the files related to old versions of packages and no longer installed packages are useful?

Directory of C:\ProgramData\chocolatey.chocolatey - 1170 Dir(s)

01/30/2018 03:48 AM

I'd would be great if older version of certain software would automatically be uninstalled when you get the latest version. I have like 10 different version of Java SDK or .NET Core SDK installed because the old versions are not uninstalled when I do an upgrade. Please find a suitable solution for this issue.

Any progress on this?

@suckerp

I'd would be great if older version of certain software would automatically be uninstalled when you get the latest version. I have like 10 different version of Java SDK or .NET Core SDK installed because the old versions are not uninstalled when I do an upgrade.

This sounds to me like an issue with those packages (and/or software installers), not an issue with Chocolatey.

This is something you should contact the maintainers of the package about instead. Perhaps a parameter could be added that removes any older versions of the software on upgrade?

See here for more discussion: https://github.com/chocolatey/choco/issues/2012

@soredake

Any progress on this?

This issue is tagged as triage, which means that it may or may not be something that is done, as it is still under discussion.

This does not affect upgrades, but perhaps you might like to enable the removePackageInformationOnUninstall feature, which cleans up files under .chocolatey from uninstalled packages.

This issue hasn't been addressed so I've reopened it.