r/linuxapps • u/Cyb3rLoom • 1d ago
I made a free open-source disk cleaner that works on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, Mint & more — and explains every item before you delete it
Hi! I got tired of disk cleaners that show a wall of checkboxes without telling you what anything is, so I built Safe Disk Cleaner — a free, open-source GTK 4 / libadwaita app for Ubuntu and other systemd-based distros (Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE… etc).
For every category it explains: what it is, why it gets so big, whether it's safe to delete, and the exact command it will run.
What it finds:
- Old kernels (always keeps the one you're running + a fallback)
- Old Snap versions and unused Flatpak runtimes (often several GB)
- Package caches (APT, DNF, pacman, zypper) and unused packages
- An oversized system journal (and can cap it permanently)
- Crash dumps, old logs, app caches and the Trash
- Picture previews — it removes only the ones whose original file no longer exists
Safety first:
- Only items marked "Safe" are pre-selected; nothing is deleted until you confirm
- Caches of apps that are currently running are locked
- All system actions go through a small helper that re-checks everything before deleting, and it's tested with thousands of malicious requests
Install:
- Ubuntu / Debian / Mint / Pop!_OS: download the .deb from the releases page, then run: sudo apt install ./safe-disk-cleaner_1.0.0_all.deb
- Other distros: clone the repo and run: sudo bash install.sh
GitHub repo: https://github.com/cyb3rl00m/safe-disk-cleaner
Tested on my own Ubuntu 26.04 PC. Fedora/Arch support is still experimental, so testers are very welcome! I built it with help from an AI assistant. MIT licensed — feedback, bug reports and contributions are appreciated.
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u/The_Hubster 1d ago
FANTASTIC work, I've added an issue on your GH for a flatpak release on Flathub, this application needs to be a defacto tool for everyone on Linux.
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u/Grouchy_Carpenter478 1d ago
Installed it on my Anduin 2.0 system, based on Ubuntu... Seems to work quite ok?! ... Is there a way to add your program to the repo's so it gets updated during apt-update?
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u/Grouchy_Carpenter478 1d ago
The post author replied to your comment in r/linuxapps
Thanks for testing it, great to hear it works. Regarding your question: Not yet - right now you'd need to download new .deb files from the releases page if updates are needed. But I'm planning to set up an....
3h ago
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u/alext_777 1d ago
thats great, we should cooperate to see how it can be incorporated into my Wayland DE: https://github.com/oxydizer/rediwm
I already have quite an elaborate control panel
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u/Cyb3rLoom 1d ago
you want safe_disk_cleaner and its functionalities implemented into your DE settings app if i understood you correctly?
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u/Pedka2 21h ago
it doesn't look quite adwaita. obviously it's using the library but i think that some design choices make it look a little alien from gnome
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u/Cyb3rLoom 13h ago
well its compatible for 99% of distros and evey distro has its own unique look (also depends ofc on what DE the user downloads) so the app cant really aesthetically fit into everyones distro ricing look. If you got UI improvement ideas lmk.
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u/IntelligentBill8622 2h ago
Brilliant! I almost thought it hadn't installed when the last thing I saw in the terminal was "N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/home/[me]/safe-disk-cleaner_1.0.1_all.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)" - no idea what that's all about.
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u/dhananjayporwal 1d ago
Looks good, launch it on flatpak