# Local Cache

In order to speed up certain operations, restic manages a local cache of data. The location of the cache directory depends on the operating system and the environment; see Caching.

Each repository has its own cache sub-directory, consisting of the repository ID which is chosen at `init`. All cache directories for different repos are independent of each other.

## Snapshots, Data and Indexes

Snapshot, Data and Index files are cached in the sub-directories `snapshots`, `data` and `index`, as read from the repository.

## Expiry

Whenever a cache directory for a repo is used, that directory’s modification timestamp is updated to the current time. By looking at the modification timestamps of the repo cache directories it is easy to decide which directories are old and haven’t been used in a long time. Those are probably stale and can be removed.