Directory and cache clearing
While you're developing components (modules, themes, and language packages), your rapidly changing environment requires you to periodically clear certain directories and caches. Otherwise, your code runs with exceptions and won't function properly.
This topic provides guidelines on what directories to clear and when to clear them. All directories discussed in this topic are default locations. It's possible to customize these locations but doing so is beyond the scope of this topic.
When you're developing components (modules, themes, and language packages), the following directories contain temporary or generated files you can clear periodically:
| Directory | Description |
|---|---|
generated/code | Contains generated code |
generated/metadata | Contains the compiled dependency injection configuration for all modules. |
pub/static | Contains js and html files for each store view. |
var/cache | All cacheable objects except the page cache. This directory is empty if you use a third-party cache storage such as Redis. |
var/composer_home | Home directory for Setup Wizard artifacts. Do not touch this directory unless you are an experienced developer familiar with the plug-in system. |
var/page_cache | Cached pages from the full page cache mechanism. This directory is empty if you use a third-party HTTP accelerator such as Varnish. |
var/view_preprocessed | Contains minified templates and compiled LESS (meaning LESS, CSS, and HTML). |
What directories to clear
The following table provides guidelines on what you should clear and when.
| Action | Directories to clear |
|---|---|
Change a class if there is a plugin related to it | generated/metadata, generated/code |
A change that results in generated factories or proxies | generated/metadata, generated/code |
A change in di.xml | generated/metadata, generated/code (also need to run the code compiler again) |
Add, remove, enable, or disable modules | generated/metadata, generated/code, var/cache, var/page_cache |
Add or edit a layout or theme | var/view_preprocessed, var/cache, var/page_cache |
Change LESS or templates | var/view_preprocessed, var/cache, var/page_cache, pub/static |
Change *.js or *.html files | pub/static |
Add or edit a CMS page, cacheable block, or use the Admin to change the configuration | var/cache, var/page_cache |
How to clear the directories
To only clear directories and not perform other actions, log in to the application server as the file system owner and clear directories using a command like the following:
Copied to your clipboardrm -r <magento_root>/generated/*/*
You can also use the following command-line tools clear some directories for you. These commands perform other tasks as well; consult the linked documentation for more details.
| Tool name | Brief description | What it clears |
|---|---|---|
Update the database schema and data | generated/metadata and generated/code | |
Generates code | generated/code prior to compiling | |
Switch between developer and production mode | generated/metadata, generated/code, var/view_preprocessed | |
Clears the cache | var/cache and var/page_cache |
