Bleachbit: Best Ubuntu Cleaning Tool
Bleachbit is an application that allows you to do several cleanings in the Ubuntu System with a few clicks.
Clean Disk in Ubuntu
Within Windows, it is widespread for users to perform disk defragmentation and other applications to clean what is on the disk.
On the other hand, in Linux distributions, this practice is not very common since it manages the file system differently.
Bleachbit Features
- Delete files that are not used anymore
- Clean improper installation traces completed by apt-get / aptitude
- Manage the cleanup of the browser's cache
- Cleaning temporary files in general throughout the system
- Free space when possible
This application is intuitive, just observe the election options that will be presented on the left side of your work area.
Install Bleachbit
You can install the software using the graphics mode of Ubuntu's default installer.
Just use the Dash to run it, and locate it by the Ubuntu Software name.
When locating the program, click on the Install button. The installation process is speedy.
You can also use the terminal to install the application. Open the terminal with CTRL + T.
Write at the command prompt, or copy and paste:
sudo aptitude install bleachbit
Or use the apt-get:
sudo apt-get install bleachbit
Once the installation process is finished, go to the Dash and search for the Bleachbit application, which will return two options, one for the typical user and the other as root.
The icon of the application will depend on the theme that is also being used.
Click on the BleachBit (root) icon to open it with superuser permissions and enter the root password.
When you run the application for the first time, the preferences window will open, where you can make some basic settings, such as closing the app after cleaning or running the application when you start the system.
You can also request that Bleachbit delete the languages you do not use in your system. You just have to select the language you want the system not to remove.
To make this configuration, in the Preferences window, select the Languages tab. If you happen to run the program and close the preferences window, just go to the Edit menu and then click on Preferences.
From Bleachbit, you can choose a group or just an issue within the group. For example, you can select the APT group and decide only ” List of packages,” to do the administration of the cleaning service.
When you click on a group or an article, you observe the changes that are made by clicking on the View button on the left side at the top. To start, just click on the Delete button.
At the end of the cleaning service application, a list will appear on the right side with the presentation of the Bleachbit action. It also shows the number of files deleted and the disk space that was released with the work.
Cleanup Packages with Terminal
As said before, it is common for us to do some of the installations that need cleaning.
However, these packages may be obsolete or inoperative for a specific version.
So that we can leave the system more agile, clean, minimize or even eliminate these files that have no use, we can use the clean command and the autoclean.
These two commands are parameters that are associated with the package managers aptitude and apt-get.
To execute them, open the terminal with the CTRL + T command and write:
sudo aptitude remove sudo aptitude clean sudo aptitude autoclean
If you use the apt-get the first line will be different:
sudo apt-get autoremove sudo apt-get clean sudo apt-get autoclean
After finishing the script, in both cases, you must update the list of repositories:
sudo aptitude update
or with apt-get:
sudo apt-get update
Whenever possible, perform cleaning to keep your system agile and with a lower risk of failure.