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Feature Request: Advanced Cache Deletion UI, Scheduling, and Categorized Retention Rules #15

@miladtempaccount

Description

@miladtempaccount

Hello 👋
First of all, thank you for the continued development of lancache-manager. It’s an excellent tool and already very powerful for monitoring and managing LANCache environments.

I would like to propose a set of enhancements focused on cache deletion and lifecycle management, aimed at making cache maintenance safer, more transparent, and more flexible—especially for long-running or large deployments.

Problem / Motivation

At scale, cache storage eventually fills up, and administrators need to:

Free space predictably

Avoid deleting important or frequently-used content

Reduce the risk of accidental destructive actions

Automate cleanup instead of relying on manual intervention

While lancache-manager already supports cache clearing, more fine-grained control and visibility would greatly improve day-to-day operations.

Proposed Features

  1. Dedicated Cache Deletion UI

A clear, purpose-built UI for cache deletion operations, including:

Service-based deletion (Steam, Epic, Blizzard, etc.)

Game/content-level deletion

“Other / Unknown” cached content deletion

Visual indicators for:

Estimated space to be freed

Number of files / entries affected

Last accessed date (if available)

This UI would help prevent mistakes and improve operator confidence.

  1. Categorized Cache Deletion & Retention Rules

Allow administrators to define rules per category, such as:

Delete:

“Other / Unknown” cached content older than X days

Specific services only (e.g., Epic but not Steam)

Retain:

Frequently accessed games

Content used during recent events

Pinned / protected games

Example rule concepts:

“Keep top 50 most-accessed games”

“Delete uncategorized content older than 14 days”

“Never delete pinned content”

  1. Scheduled Cache Deletion

Introduce scheduled cleanup jobs, configurable via the UI:

Run on a schedule (daily / weekly / monthly)

Time windows (e.g., overnight only)

Per-rule scheduling (different rules at different times)

Optional dry-run mode before the first execution

This would significantly reduce manual maintenance.

  1. Dry-Run / Preview Mode

Before executing a deletion:

Show exactly what will be removed

Show estimated freed space

Allow confirmation or cancellation

This is especially important for destructive operations.

  1. Cache Protection / Pinning

Add the ability to:

Pin games or content to protect them from deletion

Mark content as “event-critical” or “always keep”

Exclude pinned content from all automated cleanup rules

  1. Audit Log & History

Track cache deletion activity:

When a deletion happened

Who initiated it (manual or scheduled)

What rules were applied

How much space was freed

This helps with accountability and troubleshooting.

Benefits

Safer cache management

Less risk of accidental data loss

Better long-term cache health

Reduced manual effort

Scales better for large or enterprise environments

Notes

I understand that some environments mount the cache as read-only, and these features could be automatically disabled or hidden when write access is unavailable.

Even partial implementation (e.g., UI + dry-run first) would already be extremely valuable.

Thank you very much for your time and for maintaining this project.
Happy to provide more detailed use cases or feedback if helpful.

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