qb clean - System Maintenance

The qb clean functions offer a convenient and efficient way to maintain your server’s cleanliness and optimize its performance. Designed with simplicity and effectiveness in mind, these functions enable you to free up valuable memory, remove unnecessary clutter, and ensure a smooth and streamlined server operation.

Quick Reference

Available Commands

Clean Memory

Free up system memory by dropping caches:

qb clean memory

What it does:

• Executes echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
• Clears page cache, dentries, and inodes
• Frees up RAM for better performance
• Safe to run anytime (read-only data is dropped)

Technical details:

• Does NOT affect dirty/modified data
• Only drops clean cached data
• No data loss occurs
• RAM is freed immediately

When to use:

• System is running slow
• High memory usage detected
• After installing/removing large applications
• As part of regular maintenance

Clean QuickBox System Logs

Truncate QuickBox and Nginx error logs (requires admin privileges):

qb clean qb_logs -u username

Admin requirement:

• User level 9 (admin) or 10 (super-admin) required
• Permission check enforced by database

What it truncates:

• /var/log/qb/quickbox.log - QuickBox actions log
• /var/log/nginx/qbdash_error.log - Dashboard Nginx errors
• /var/log/nginx/error.log - General Nginx errors

When to use:

• After resolving dashboard errors
• Logs growing too large
• Before generating support logs
• Troubleshooting UI issues

Remove Old System Log Files

Delete logs and compressed archives in /var/log (requires admin privileges):

# Use default 7-day retention
qb clean system_logs -u username
 
# Custom retention period (3 days)
qb clean system_logs -o 3 -u username

Admin requirement:

• User level 9 (admin) or 10 (super-admin) required
• Permission check enforced by database

Options:

• -o [days] - Retention period in days (default: 7 if not specified)
• -u [username] - Username (required for permission check)

What gets removed from /var/log:

• All files (-type f) older than specified days
• Compressed archives: *.gz
• Old log files: *.old
• Numbered log files: *.[0-9], *.[0-9].log

Find commands executed:

find /var/log -type f -mtime +[days] -exec rm -f {} \;
find /var/log -type f -mtime +[days] -name "*.gz" -exec rm -f {} \;
find /var/log -type f -mtime +[days] -name "*.old" -exec rm -f {} \;
find /var/log -type f -mtime +[days] -name "*.[0-9]" -exec rm -f {} \;
find /var/log -type f -mtime +[days] -name "*.[0-9].log" -exec rm -f {} \;

Clean Rclone Upload Log

Clear rclone upload log file for a specific user:

qb clean rclone_log -u username

What it does:

• Empties /home/username/rclone/move.log file
• Clears rclone upload operation history
• Preserves file (truncates to empty, doesn’t delete)

Prerequisites:

• File /home/username/rclone/move.log must exist
• User must have rclone configured

Error handling:

• Returns error code 2 if username not specified
• Returns error code 3 if rclone log file doesn’t exist

When to use:

• Rclone logs growing too large
• After bulk upload operations
• Troubleshooting rclone issues
• Disk space cleanup

Clean Locks

Remove QuickBox software and apt-dpkg locks that may prevent installations:

qb clean lock

What it does:

• Runs quickbox::apt::update to update package lists
• Calls quickbox::lock::cleanup function
• Removes QuickBox installation locks
• Removes apt-dpkg locks
• Clears package manager locks
• Stops stale installation processes

When to use this:

Clean User Action Logs

Delete user dashboard logs from database older than specified days:

# Delete logs older than 30 days (default)
qb clean user_action_logs
 
# Custom retention period
qb clean user_action_logs --days 14
qb clean user_action_logs -d 7
 
# Cron mode (for automated cleanup)
qb clean user_action_logs --cron

What it does:

• Deletes log_type = 'dashboard' entries from system_log table
• Uses UNIX timestamp comparison for efficiency
• Default retention: 30 days
• Logs the cleanup operation itself

Options:

• --days or -d - Number of days to retain (default: 30)
• --cron - Cron mode (changes log source to ‘cron’)

Database operation:

DELETE FROM system_log
WHERE log_type = 'dashboard'
AND timestamp <= [unix_timestamp_threshold];

When to use:

• Database growing too large
• Dashboard performance degrading
• Regular maintenance automation
• Privacy compliance (data retention policies)

Clean System Action Logs

Delete system logs from database older than specified days:

# Delete logs older than 30 days (default)
qb clean system_action_logs
 
# Custom retention period
qb clean system_action_logs --days 14
qb clean system_action_logs -d 7
 
# Cron mode (for automated cleanup)
qb clean system_action_logs --cron

What it does:

• Deletes log_type = 'system' entries from system_log table
• Uses formatted date comparison
• Default retention: 30 days
• Logs the cleanup operation itself

Options:

• --days or -d - Number of days to retain (default: 30)
• --cron - Cron mode (changes log source to ‘cron’)

Database operation:

DELETE FROM system_log
WHERE log_type = 'system'
AND timestamp <= 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS';

When to use:

• Database growing too large
• Improve database query performance
• Regular maintenance automation
• Compliance with data retention policies

Common Workflows

Regular Maintenance Routine

Weekly cleanup routine for optimal performance:

# 1. Clean system memory
qb clean memory
 
# 2. Remove old system logs (keep last 7 days - requires admin)
qb clean system_logs -u yourusername
 
# 3. Clean rclone logs (if using rclone)
qb clean rclone_log -u yourusername
 
# 4. Clean database logs (optional - keep last 30 days)
qb clean user_action_logs --days 30
qb clean system_action_logs --days 30

Troubleshooting Installation Issues

When installations fail due to locks:

# 1. Clean locks first
qb clean lock
 
# 2. Try your installation again
qb install sonarr -u yourusername

Free Up Disk Space

When running low on disk space:

# 1. Remove old logs (aggressive 3-day retention - requires admin)
qb clean system_logs -o 3 -u yourusername
 
# 2. Clean rclone logs
qb clean rclone_log -u yourusername
 
# 3. Clean database logs (aggressive 7-day retention)
qb clean user_action_logs --days 7
qb clean system_action_logs --days 7
 
# 4. Clean memory caches
qb clean memory
 
# 5. Check disk usage
df -h
du -sh /var/log

Dashboard Issues Resolution

When dashboard is slow or showing errors:

# 1. Clean QB system logs (requires admin)
qb clean qb_logs -u yourusername
 
# 2. Clean memory
qb clean memory
 
# 3. Check if services are running
systemctl status nginx
systemctl status php*-fpm

Best Practices

Automation

Create Automated Cleanup Script

You can automate regular cleanup tasks with a cron job:

#!/bin/bash
# /root/scripts/weekly-cleanup.sh
 
echo "Starting weekly cleanup - $(date)"
 
# Clean memory
qb clean memory
 
# Clean logs for all users (adjust usernames)
for user in user1 user2 user3; do
  echo "Cleaning logs for $user"
  qb clean system_logs -o 7 -u $user          # Requires admin
  qb clean rclone_log -u $user
done
 
# Clean database logs (30-day retention)
qb clean user_action_logs --days 30 --cron
qb clean system_action_logs --days 30 --cron
 
echo "Cleanup completed - $(date)"

Set up weekly cron job:

# Make script executable
chmod +x /root/scripts/weekly-cleanup.sh
 
# Add to crontab (runs every Sunday at 3 AM)
echo "0 3 * * 0 /root/scripts/weekly-cleanup.sh >> /var/log/weekly-cleanup.log 2>&1" | crontab -

Disk Space Management

Check Disk Usage Before Cleaning

# Check overall disk usage
df -h
 
# Check log directory size
du -sh /var/log
 
# Check user home directories
du -sh /home/*
 
# Find largest log files
find /var/log -type f -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -20

After Cleaning

# Verify disk space freed
df -h
 
# Check log directory after cleanup
du -sh /var/log

Troubleshooting

”Permission Denied” Errors

# Clean commands require root/sudo access
sudo qb clean memory
 
# Or switch to root
sudo -i
qb clean memory

Lock Clean Not Working

# If lock clean fails, manually investigate
ps aux | grep -E 'apt|dpkg'
 
# Kill specific processes if needed (use carefully)
kill -9 [PID]
 
# Then try again
qb clean lock

Logs Still Large After Cleaning

# Check for active log writers
lsof /var/log/*
 
# Check journal size
journalctl --disk-usage
 
# Clean systemd journal
journalctl --vacuum-time=7d

Related Commands

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