> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# CLEAR FILE CACHE

Removes all entries from a [file cache](https://docs.kinetica.com/content/config.md#config-main-file-cache),
both in memory and on disk, on every rank.  The cache remains enabled, so data
read after it is cleared is cached again; until then, reads of data that was
held in the cache are retrieved from their source instead, and may be slower.
Only users with the `system_admin`
[permission](https://docs.kinetica.com/content/security/sec_concepts.md#security-concepts-permissions) can issue this
command.

To see the entries held in each file cache and the usage statistics of the
caches, query the [ki\_file\_cache\_entries](https://docs.kinetica.com/content/catalogs/kinetica.md#ki-file-cache-entries) and
[ki\_file\_cache\_stats](https://docs.kinetica.com/content/catalogs/kinetica.md#ki-file-cache-stats) catalog tables.

```sql title="CLEAR FILE CACHE Syntax" theme={null}
CLEAR FILE CACHE < <cache name> | "default" >
```

## Parameters

> **\<cache name>**
>
> Name of the file cache to clear.  The only file cache is `external_files`, which holds
> data read from files in remote storage, such as the files backing *external tables*.
>
> Cache names are case-sensitive and must be given in lowercase.

> **"default"**
>
> Clear all file caches.  As `default` is a reserved word, it must be double-quoted.

## Response

The response to `CLEAR FILE CACHE` is a single-row result set with one
column, `SYSTEM_PROPERTIES`, confirming the request in the form
`file_cache.<cache name>.clear = true`.

## Examples

To clear the external files cache:

```sql CLEAR FILE CACHE Example theme={null}
CLEAR FILE CACHE external_files
```

To clear all file caches:

```sql CLEAR FILE CACHE for All Caches Example theme={null}
CLEAR FILE CACHE "default"
```


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