How to Clear DNS Cache on Linux

Before you learn how to clear the DNS Cache, you must understand what the DNS is and the caching system. Understanding them both will help you know why it needs to be done and when it might be necessary.

A DNS (Domain Name System) is the index of all the websites that can be found on the internet. The record includes the name of the website the IP address of where they’re hosted. Therefore, the DNS is like a telephone directory of all the websites online.

The cache is local files that are stored on your computer that give you the basic building blocks for rendering a website. It is like a snapshot of a website. This is to speed up loading of a website page and improve the experience of your time online.

The DNS Cache is the stored information on your website of the DNS. However, sometimes this information is out of date or corrupted. This is when you might need to clear your computer’s DNS cache.

Here are the steps to clear your DNS cache on Linux computers. The process is very similar to that you would find for MacOS and Windows.

Linux OS users the Terminal system as the command line interface. To open this, you will need to click on ‘Activities’ in the top-left corner of the desktop. This will provide a search bar. Enter in the search query ‘terminal’ and it will find and launch the program for you.

Once you’ve got the command line interface open, you can execute the command:

sudo systemd-resolve –flushcaches

You will be prompted to enter your password. When you’ve entered that information, the command should execute, clearing the cache.

If you’re not using the Linux distribution Ubuntu, then you can clear the DNS cache by finding the command line interface and then entering in this line of code:

sudo /etc/init.d/dns-clean start

Once this has been entered, you can then see that the cache has been cleared.