How to Clean the DNF (YUM) Cache on RHEL, AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: dnf 4.14 to 4.20 on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 9 and 10 and RHEL 9 and 10 (yum is an alias of dnf); dnf5 on Fedora

dnf keeps repository metadata and, if configured, downloaded packages in a cache under /var/cache/dnf. Cleaning it frees disk space and fixes errors caused by outdated or damaged metadata, such as checksum mismatches or "Cannot download repomd.xml". On current systems yum clean runs dnf clean, so both names work. The old yum clean headers option no longer exists.

Clean the cache

dnf clean all          # everything: metadata and packages
dnf clean packages     # only cached package files
dnf clean metadata     # only repository metadata
dnf clean dbcache      # only the solver cache files

After cleaning, dnf downloads fresh metadata on the next command. To do that straight away:

dnf makecache

Check how much space the cache uses with du -sh /var/cache/dnf.

Keep downloaded packages

By default dnf deletes packages after installing them. To keep them, for example to install the same versions on other servers, add this to the [main] section of /etc/dnf/dnf.conf:

keepcache=True

Cached packages then stay in /var/cache/dnf/*/packages/ until you run dnf clean packages. To collect packages without installing them, use dnf download instead; see downloading RPM packages with dependencies.

When a clean fixes errors

• "Cannot download repomd.xml" or "Failed to download metadata for repo": run dnf clean all and try again. If it still fails, test the network and DNS (curl -I https://repo.almalinux.org/), or disable a broken third-party repository with dnf config-manager --set-disabled REPOID.
• "Checksum doesn't match" or "Package does not match intended download": a mirror was out of date while you downloaded. Clean the cache and try again later.
• Old package versions offered after a repository changed: dnf clean metadata forces fresh metadata.

On Ubuntu and Debian

apt keeps downloaded packages in /var/cache/apt/archives. apt clean deletes them all; apt autoclean deletes only those that can no longer be downloaded.

Official documentation: DNF command reference (clean and makecache) and DNF configuration reference.