Find and clean up your config files
Have you ever checked your home directories for space and wondered, “What the…?” This is one of the questions you should have a better grasp of at the end of this adventure.
Why would you want to know this, you ask? OK, most Linux Format readers are probably not asking this question, but it is a valid one. Checking this manually takes time and can make things slow the next time you open the application. This is especially true for web browsers since they use any local storage to save your downloads.
If you take away the wrong things you can also have a non-responsive application, though this is rare. Developers of most applications test what happens when configuration files are empty or missing. They do this repeatedly, so you can gracefully restore your preferences and cache.
We consider Linux very secure, but there is a virtue in being vigilant about what is on your disk. If you want to share your configuration with others, you must make sure you keep security-related files to yourself. If you have a Bitcoin client or any other digital currency, you may have a long block-chain in your home directory. It is good to know how to find those and remove or move them according to your needs.
Therefore, you’ll want to read this tutorial for the following reasons;
To help minimise the load
To make sure you are secure
To bring your configuration with you
Some other use cases are when you are testing packages and need to clean up, as most packages do not remove your settings from your home directory. This is great if
