Clear RAM cache and Swap space

clear-ram-swap.md

Clear RAM-cache and Swap in Linux

It is possible to clear cache without interrupting any process or service. sync will flush the file system buffer and drop_cache will clean cache without killing any application/service.

Clear PageCache only

# sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Clear inodes

# sync; echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Clear both (it's not recommended on production!)

# sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

• clear swap

# swapoff -a && swapon -a

• clearcache.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo "echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" && swapoff -a && swapon -a && printf '\n Ram-cache and Swap cleared'

Add executable permission

chmod 755 clearcache.sh

Add cron job

crontab -l > cron_backup
echo "0 10 * * * sudo /home/<user>/clearcache.sh >/dev/null 2>&1" >> cron_backup
crontab cron_backup
rm cron_backup