About dbt clean command
dbt clean is a utility function that deletes the paths specified within the clean-targets list in the dbt_project.yml file. It helps by removing unnecessary files or directories generated during the execution of other dbt commands, ensuring a clean state for the project.
Example usage
dbt clean
Supported flags
This section will briefly explain the following flags:
To view the list of all supported flags for the dbt clean command in the terminal, use the --help flag, which will display detailed information about the available flags you can use, including its description and usage:
dbt clean --help
--clean-project-files-only
By default, dbt deletes all the paths within the project directory specified in clean-targets.
Avoid using paths outside the dbt project; otherwise, you will see an error.
Example usage
dbt clean --clean-project-files-only
--no-clean-project-files-only
Deletes all the paths specified in the clean-targets list of dbt_project.yml, including those outside the current dbt project.
dbt clean --no-clean-project-files-only
dbt clean with remote file system
To avoid complex permissions issues and potentially deleting crucial aspects of the remote file system without access to fix them, this command does not work when interfacing with the RPC server that powers the dbt Cloud IDE. Instead, when working in dbt Cloud, the dbt deps command cleans before it installs packages automatically. The target folder can be manually deleted from the sidebar file tree if needed.