Hi Kate, Removing cache files is, pretty much by definition, harmless. Cache files are kept for efficiency, e.g. to avoid fetching a large file from the web or redoing an expensive calculation -- they should never actually be required for the functioning of any software. That being said, I'm wondering what files/folders you are referring to when you're talking about "the ChimeraX cache". I'm not aware of any ChimeraX caches that are particularly large other than possibly ~/Downloads/ChimeraX. If you're referring to some other location, then removing it may possibly interfere with ChimeraX's operation. Perhaps you could be more specific about what you are thinking of removing? --Eric Eric Pettersen UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
On Apr 23, 2025, at 1:59 PM, Radford, Katelyn M. (Kate) via ChimeraX-users <chimerax-users@cgl.ucsf.edu> wrote:
Hi there!
I'm in the throes of a memory-expensive project and my computer is running out of space. A little bit of googling led me to conclude that it would probably make sense for me to clear my system's cache, as my system files take up about a third of my disk space. ChimeraX cache files account for a substantial portion of that memory usage. As I make figures, I save .cxs files of each figure so that it's easy to go back and edit things that need to be changed. My ChimeraX also has a bunch of plug-ins installed (e.g. ISOLDE). I'm wondering: how much damage will I do to my installation and to my .cxs files if I delete the ChimeraX cache?
System and software details: ChimeraX version: 1.9 MacOS: Ventura 13.0 Chip: Apple M2 Max
Thank you all so much for the excellent work you do, Best wishes, Kate
Kate Radford (she/they) PhD candidate, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics California Institute of Technology 1200 E California Blvd Pasadena, CA 91125
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