Background

Eyes set on Google news for a bit of distraction.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Saw an article by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes :-

Titled :- These hidden cache files are bloating your Google Chrome
SubTitle :- Google Chrome could be storing a hundred thousand cached files on your computer, and it doesn’t give you a way to delete them.
Link :- Link

Timeline

1. Google Chrome, The Storage Hoarder
   • Date Published :- 2019-April-25th
     Link

Explore

Let us look at one of our machines and see what it looks like.

OS – MS Windows

Folder

On MS Windows, Google’s Chrome User Data is saved here :-

1. User Data
   • Pattern
     • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
   • Sample
     • C:\Users\dadeniji\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
2. Code Cache – JavaScript
   • Pattern
     • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache\js
   • Sample
     • C:\Users\dadeniji\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache\js

Explorer

File Listing

Image

Explanation

1. Number of Files :- 110,613 items
2. Files
   • File Names
     • Data Files
       • *_0
     • Index Files
       • index
     • Index-dir
       • File Folder

Files – Storage Used

Image

Explanation

1. Size :- 35.1 MB
2. Size on disk :- 47.3 MB
3. Number of Files :- 21,655 Files

 

Code

Outline

1. Identify Google Chrome JavaScript Code Cache Folder
   • OS Environment Variable
     • APPDATA
       • C:\Users\dadeniji\AppData\Roaming
     • LOCALAPPDATA
       • C:\Users\dadeniji\AppData\Local
2. Get Total In Use Files Size
   • Issue dir
     • Parse output of dir command
       • Look for the word bytes
       • Then parse for Files
3. If parameter cleanup passed in, please remove files
   • Command – forfiles
     • parameters
       • /p
         • <folder>
       • /m
         • *_0
       • /C
         • cmd /C dir /b @path & del @path
           • dir /b @path
             • list file name
           • del @path
             • delete file
           • &
             • concatenate command

Script

Here is a script cleaning things up on MS Windows

@echo off
setlocal

set "_appData=%APPDATA%"

set "_appDataLocal=%LOCALAPPDATA%"

set "_googleChromeCodeCacheJS=%_appDataLocal%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache\js"

dir "%_googleChromeCodeCacheJS%" | findstr "bytes" | findstr "File"

IF [%1]==[] ECHO Please pass in cleanup to actually cleanup

if "%1" == "cleanup" (

	if exist "%_googleChromeCodeCacheJS%"\*_0 (

		echo cleaning up ...

		forfiles /p "%_googleChromeCodeCacheJS%"  /M "*_0" /C "cmd /C dir /b @path & del @path "

		echo cleaned up

	)

)

:complete

endlocal

Output

Output

 

Source Code

Github

Gist

DanielAdeniji/pruneGoogleCacheJavaScript.cmd
Link