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How can one look at content of temporary cache of his computer ?

After something not actually downloaded (just pressing the button to open data not download) to any directory, this data temporarily stored in some place but my computer stores them as permanent.

How can I look at that directory then erase unused data ? In other words, my "browser puts stuff in"

ex: to watch video, Just press open rar file from website like rapid. Or to look at ebook, Just press open zip file.

They must be erased automatically but my computer stores them.

EDIT: Most of time, I am using Firefox, but I have also used chromium and safari.

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Which browser? Chrom(ium)e, Firefox and Opera all store it in different places. –  jrg Oct 14 '11 at 18:04

3 Answers 3

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Mozilla Firefox


You can go to about:cache in your Browser to see information about this as well.

About Cache Link



Google Chrome


Also, Chromium and Google Chrome store some additional cache at ~/.config/chromium/[profile]/Application Cache/Cache/ and ~/.config/google-chrome/[profile]/Application Cache/Cache/


~/.wine/drive_c/Document and Settings/$USER/Application Data/Apple Computer/Safari
~/.wine/drive_c/Document and Settings/$USER/Local Settings/Application Data/Apple Computer/Safari

Other than this, browsers can store temporary files in /tmp/ as well

Reference: Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, Safari

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Temporarily downloaded files

All Linux browsers (including Firefox and Chrome) store "Open for viewing" downloads in the /tmp directory. Old /tmp files are deleted the following situations:

  1. When you close your browser
  2. When you restart Ubuntu
  3. When your disk space is low

If you want to make a temporary download permanent, you can simply navigate to /tmp, find the file in question, and copy it into your home folder.

Streaming media

Flash, audio, and video files you play are cached in highly obfuscated directories like $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/3lms8ke.default/C/2A for Firefox. Woozie's answer to this question can help you find and retrieve flash files. Remove the | grep Flash part of his command to get a list of all cached files by their data type.

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I've seen Flash streams appear in /tmp while they were being streamed with Chromium. It's easiest to find them with ls -rt /tmp (reverse sort by modification time, so newest files end up being listed last). –  Marius Gedminas Oct 22 '11 at 19:17

do you mean : "the browser cache

take a look at :

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