How large can Nautilus's thumbnail cache grow?

Nautilus's thumbnail cache in ~/.thumbnails has grown to several hundred megabytes.

Do I need to be concerned about unrestricted growth of this in the long term, or is its size automatically managed somehow?

Solution 1:

Thumbnail cache is limited to 512MB, so several hundred megabytes sounds logical. It also shouldn't keep files older then 180 days.

If you want to change it, try gconf-editor, /desktop/gnome/thumbnail_cache.

Exactly the same solution is aplicable to 12.04. You may need to install gconf-editor, other then that, nothing has changed.

Update

For 14.04 you need to install dconf-tools, and launch dconf-editor.

Solution 2:

It's size is automatically managed, because it has a built in limit of 512MB by default, and deletes thumbnails older than 180days. It will not cache files above a certain size limit either:

If you want to manage its settings, you can use Ubuntu-Tweak (See how to install it here: How do I install Ubuntu-Tweak?):