Cleaning up the GoLand cache and log directories

When GoLang gets upgraded from one version to the next, the upgrade process create a new set of per-user directories for the configuration, cache, and logs of the new version.

What it does not do if clean up their equivalents used by previous versions installed on the machine. This is to support rolling back to an earlier version in case the new version happens to have a major issue, and is especially useful for developers working with EAP versions instead of using only stable ones.

Once you decide to remain on the latest version (until the next one), removing these now-useless directories can save some disk space, possibly over 1 GB.

Here are their respective locations on macOS (Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave)¹:

Purpose	Size range	Configuration variable	Default location
Configuration	3-30 MB	`idea.config.path`	`~/Library/Preferences/Gogland1.0` `~/Library/Preferences/Goland(year).(minor)`
Plugins	50-100 MB	`idea.plugins.path`	`~/Library/Application Support/Gogland1.0` `~/Library/Application Support/GoLand-EAP` `~/Library/Application Support/GoLand` `~/Library/Application Support/GoLand(year).(minor)`
Caches	≫ 200 MB	`idea.system.path`	`~/Library/Caches/Gogland1.0` `~/Library/Caches/GoLand(year).(minor)`
Logs	1-10 MB	`idea.log.path`	`~/Library/Logs/Gogland1.0` `~/Library/Logs/GoLand(year).(minor)`

On Windows or Linux, or on customized deployments on macOS too, you can find the actual directory location by checking the configuration variable listed in the third column of the table.

The JetBrains Toolbox app uses similar locations.

The “Gogland” paths were used by the early versions of the IDE. ↩︎