Periodically remove very old thumbnails or cap thumbnail cache size to avoid filling up disk with thumbnails

[Nate Graham]

The cross-desktop thumbnail spec contains no provision for removing thumbnails, and as a result, the thumbnail cache (~/.cache/thumbnails) can grow without limit. For some users with large numbers of images, the cache can wind up taking up quite a lot of space and even causing free space issues. We should consider setting a maximum size for the cache, or removing old thumbnails not accessed in the last few years, or something like that.

More information, including proposed cleanup scripts, can be found in the following upstream KDE bug report that was reported to track this issue: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79943

[Michi Henning (michihenning)]

This is the wrong project for that bug. The KDE thumbnailer has nothing to do with this thumbnailer (which does enforce a size limit).

[Nate Graham (pointedstick)]

I'm not sure this should be done in kio-extras. As I mentioned in https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79943, the thumbnails are part of a cross-desktop spec, so it seems inappropriate for any particular desktop environment to do the cleanup on its own.

My suggestion is for it do be done in a DE-agnostic manner at the distro level.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

Users don't switch DE often. It's a cache - if it's removed not too much of deal.