# How do I regularly clean up .git/objects/pack/tmp_* files? 2 messages from 2017-06-03 to 2017-06-04. Participants: Dun Peal, Jeff King. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/46108 ## Dun Peal, 2017-06-03 20:53 Subject: How do I regularly clean up .git/objects/pack/tmp_* files? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAD03jn5CEwZ0H%2BUKO4yW3PoL%2BXPXcwUGnehhv-KyBYQCYzAXGQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` Hi there, I try to follow the best practice of regular repo maintenance, which afaik consists of running `git gc` every week or so. So I thought I had a well-maintained repository, and was quite surprised to discover some very large .git/objects/pack/tmp_* files, which apparently are entirely needless and should be cleaned up, but `git gc` doesn't clean them. Is there another command I should regularly run, instead or in addition to `git gc`, to keep my repo well-maintained, and specifically, to remove such unnecessary files from my .git directory? Thanks, D. ``` ## Jeff King, 2017-06-04 05:17 Subject: Re: How do I regularly clean up .git/objects/pack/tmp_* files? Message-ID: <20170604051740.gnkrjv35udgipg42@sigill.intra.peff.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20170604051740.gnkrjv35udgipg42%40sigill.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Sat, Jun 03, 2017 at 04:53:20PM -0400, Dun Peal wrote: > I try to follow the best practice of regular repo maintenance, which > afaik consists of running `git gc` every week or so. > > So I thought I had a well-maintained repository, and was quite > surprised to discover some very large .git/objects/pack/tmp_* files, > which apparently are entirely needless and should be cleaned up, but > `git gc` doesn't clean them. > > Is there another command I should regularly run, instead or in > addition to `git gc`, to keep my repo well-maintained, and > specifically, to remove such unnecessary files from my .git directory? They're kept with the same time-based grace period that is used for unreachable objects, which defaults to the rather conservative "2 weeks". Try "git gc --prune=1.hour.ago". -Peff ```