pacman --clean can't remove temporary directories created by yay

[wormingdead]

Affected Version

yay v12.5.7 - libalpm v16.0.1

Describe the bug

yay seems to be creating temporary cache directories that pacman can't remove with --clean.

Reproduction Steps

1. Install an AUR package with yay
2. Run yes | yay -Scc
3. error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-GKSjZK: Is a directory

Expected behavior

Pacman cache directories are emptied.

Output

[worm ~]$ yes | yay -Scc

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove ALL files from cache? [y/N] y
removing all files from cache...

Database directory: /var/lib/pacman/
:: Do you want to remove unused repositories? [Y/n] y
removing unused sync repositories...

Build directory: /home/worm/.cache/yay
:: Do you want to remove ALL AUR packages from cache? [Y/n] removing AUR packages from cache...
[worm ~]$ yay -Sq yay
AUR Explicit (1): yay-12.5.7-1

[...]

[worm ~]$ yes | yay -Scc

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove ALL files from cache? [y/N] y
removing all files from cache...
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-GKSjZK: Is a directory

Database directory: /var/lib/pacman/
:: Do you want to remove unused repositories? [Y/n] y
removing unused sync repositories...
 -> exit status 255
[worm ~]$

[XboxD00d]

+1

yay -Scc

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove ALL files from cache? [y/N] y
removing all files from cache...
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-wQhCol: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-ZVaYOM: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-Z9N0Qw: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-MozRz5: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-6s8yKF: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-li9kiH: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-D0D7Aa: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-W0mtNa: Is a directory

yes | yay -Scc

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove ALL files from cache? [y/N] y
removing all files from cache...
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-wQhCol: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-ZVaYOM: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-Z9N0Qw: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-MozRz5: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-6s8yKF: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-li9kiH: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-D0D7Aa: Is a directory
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-W0mtNa: Is a directory

[Jguer]

yay does not create directories or files in /var/cache/pacman and relies on calling pacman -Scc for cleaning these directories

[XboxD00d]

yay does not create directories or files in /var/cache/pacman and relies on calling pacman -Scc for cleaning these directories

you would think so, but it doesn't.

sudo pacman -Scc
[sudo] password for john: 

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove ALL files from cache? [y/N] y
removing all files from cache...
error: could not remove /var/cache/pacman/pkg/download-dRLWRt: Is a directory

[wormingdead]

@XboxD00d I think what Jguer means is that yay -Scc is using pacman -Scc behind the scenes which is why you see the same error.

Looks like there's already an issue on the pacman repository: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman/-/issues/234

[egnrse]

And this pacman regression might be the reason you see those folders in the first place: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman/-/issues/297

Those folder can be easily manually deleted with: sudo find /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ -mindepth 1 -type d -empty -delete