I have a RHEL system whose disk keeps filling up. The problem is /var/cache/yum
. I have read Can we clean yum cache files manually? and I know that sometimes you have to, like it says, clear out /var/cache/yum
manually.
My problem is that, a few hours after I manually clear it, the cache fills right back up again. (This is a particular problem because it's a VM with a small disk, and a full yum cache pegs it at 100%.)
Obviously some background process is helpfully repopulating the cache for me, but I can't figure out what it is.
A google search found https://access.redhat.com/solutions/5302591 which looks like it's probably my problem, but it's a subscriber-only page which I can't read. (Splendidly played customer blackmail tactic there, Red Hat.)
A google search found https://www.thegeekdiary.com/var-cache-yum-constantly-filling-files-system-in-centos-rhel/ , but it hasn't helped. It mentions a number of services to investigate, but none of those services seems to be running on my machine at all.
Update: I caught the mystery cache-filling process in the act. ps
reveals that the process
/usr/bin/python /usr/share/PackageKit/hlpers/yum/yumBackend.
is running, invoked by /usr/libexec/packagekitd
. And it looks like there's a systemd service 'packagekit' running. Anybody know what that is? I think I'll try disabling it.