Cache lifecycle

Status

cargo warm status

The registry records cache roots cargo-warm created, the worktree they belong to, and whether that worktree/cache is still available.

Cargo-warm does not claim ownership of arbitrary Cargo caches it merely observed.

Garbage collection

Preview cleanup first:

cargo warm gc --dry-run

Then remove cargo-warm-owned cache roots whose destination worktrees no longer exist:

cargo warm gc

GC is deliberately conservative. It does not delete an active worktree’s cache and does not scan the filesystem looking for unrelated Cargo directories to remove.

Cache pressure

A cache can become too large to be useful. Very large stale deps/ populations can add filesystem and Cargo bookkeeping overhead even when the actual compiler work is incremental.

cargo warm doctor reports simple cache-shape counts so unusually bloated warm sources are visible. If a source has accumulated many obsolete build families, benchmark after pruning stale state as well as after changing cargo-warm profiles.

The goal is not maximal cache retention. It is the smallest warm state that gives the best edit loop.