can NuGetScratch directory safely be deleted?

Question

Good afternoon,

I'm using a SSD and getting close to running out of room. Upon running WinDirStat (great utility!) I've found the biggest remaining HD space hog is the "NuGetScratch" directory, located at:

C:\Users[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp\NuGetScratch\

Based on the name I'm under the impression that this is a swap/temp type file that could probably deleted without any NuGet ill effects. Can somebody confirm this or provide further information? I'm using Window 10 if that matters.

The directory corresponding to the one you refer to on both my Windows 7 and Windows 10 drives is empty, and I have used NuGet in VS in both environments. By convention, anything which is not currently in use in a "Temp" directory is fair game for deletion. You did not mention the size of the directory. Had you asked in the correct forum, you would probably have received more information. — Andrew Morton, Dec 10 '16 at 18:11
Out of interest, mine got to 86gb in about 3 years of dev on my machine — Savage, Oct 12 '17 at 09:33

score 29 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 28 '16 at 15:39

29

Yes, deleting should be fine.

You can also run NuGet.exe locals temp -clear instead of manually deleting the directory.

For more info, see https://docs.nuget.org/ndocs/consume-packages/managing-the-nuget-cache.

answered Dec 28 '16 at 15:39

Oskar

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It looks like VisualStudio|nuget are littering huge caching directories under %localappdata%\NuGetScratch. I see a new directory for each new instance of VS I use, and those directories don't go away after closing VS. I now run a scheduled daily task to run that command. It suprises me a lot of other VS/nuget users are not noting this problem. – Bill Hoag Jan 11 '17 at 16:18
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Updating Resharper fixed the NuGetScratch [issue](https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/4040) – Bill Hoag Jan 11 '17 at 16:43
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If anyone gets `unknown command 'locals'` like I was when executing the command, check out [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/34935038/894792) – Luke Apr 12 '17 at 15:54

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 02 '17 at 04:37

Thanks @BillHoag for the informative link.

For everyone else that wants step by step instructions,

1.) This is a Resharper bug. If you have a version of Resharper that's older than 2016.3.2 , go to https://resharper-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/207242355-Where-can-I-download-an-old-previous-ReSharper-version- and download 2016.3.2.

2.) you can clear out the old files via the Nuget package manager console by going to Tools -> Nuget Package Manager -> Package Manager Console , and typing NuGet.exe locals temp -clear , and pressing enter. May take a good 5 - 10 minutes to finish clearing, but it will do the job.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 15:59

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If you are using the Package Manager Console.

dotnet nuget locals all --clear

answered Sep 10 '18 at 15:59

Chris Vaught

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '18 at 11:43

You can clear all of the cache instead of only temp with the following command to help with other pesky errors that might not be related to the temp cache:

nuget locals all -clear

If you do a nuget locals all --list, this will list all of the caches, not only the temp cache. This lists the http-cache, global-package, and temp caches.

Hopefully this will help someone with that odd error. :)

can NuGetScratch directory safely be deleted?

4 Answers4