update-icon-caches

update-icon-caches [options]

None generally recognized
    The specific implementation of update-icon-caches often acts as a simple wrapper script that iterates through icon paths and calls other commands (like gtk-update-icon-cache). As such, it typically does not accept common command-line parameters directly.

(implementation-specific options)
    Some distributions or custom scripts may provide options like --verbose or --force, but these are not standardized for a generic update-icon-caches command.

update-icon-caches is typically a high-level utility or script designed to ensure that the icon theme caches on a Linux system are up-to-date.

Modern desktop environments and applications rely on icon caches (like those generated by gtk-update-icon-cache for GTK, or similar for Qt) to quickly load icons, improving application startup times and overall responsiveness.

This command, often implemented as a wrapper, scans common icon directories (e.g., /usr/share/icons, ~/.local/share/icons) and invokes the appropriate toolkit-specific cache-building utilities for each discovered icon theme. Its primary purpose is to make newly installed or updated icon sets immediately visible to applications without requiring manual intervention or system reboots.

• Wrapper Nature: This command is often a script that orchestrates calls to other, more specific cache-updating utilities (e.g., gtk-update-icon-cache, qt5ct-update-icon-cache). Its exact behavior and available options depend entirely on the specific implementation provided by your distribution or desktop environment.
• No Direct Icon Generation: update-icon-caches does not generate icons itself; it only updates the cache files that index existing icons.
• Permissions: Running this command might require superuser privileges (sudo) if it needs to update system-wide icon caches in directories like /usr/share/icons.
• Troubleshooting: If icons are still not appearing correctly after running this command, the issue might lie with the icon theme itself, the underlying toolkit's cache utility, or incorrect desktop file entries, rather than update-icon-caches directly.

update-icon-caches is most frequently invoked automatically by package managers after installing or updating icon themes, or by desktop environment scripts. Users typically do not need to run it manually unless troubleshooting icon display issues after manual theme changes.

Successfully updating icon caches can significantly improve the performance of applications when loading icons and ensures consistency in the graphical user interface.

The need for update-icon-caches arose with the increasing complexity of desktop environments and the widespread adoption of icon themes. Manually updating caches for various toolkits (GTK, Qt, etc.) and multiple icon paths became cumbersome. This led to the development of higher-level scripts or system hooks (often triggered during package installation) that automate this process, abstracting away the specifics of gtk-update-icon-cache and similar utilities. Its development is intertwined with the evolution of desktop environment infrastructure.

gtk-update-icon-cache(1), qtchooser(1), xdg-utils(1)