Additionally, give the administrator the ability to issue a clear cache command from the server console or policy to the clients through some mechanism (perhaps similar to the broadcast console command, or a one time policy feature).

I have found two situations where cache.ndk actually got in the way:
1. When changing the IP address of a server and the clients all had connection documents to the Netbios name. Cache.ndk was caching the old IP address instead of letting the machine pick up the new IP address. No matter what we tried, only deleting cache.ndk would allow the Notes client to resolve the new IP address.

2. When we did a mass upgrade of mail templates from R6 standard to OpenNTF1.7b (using load convert) in an environment where we have clustered mail servers, the Monday morning after the mail template upgrade, many of the clients had save/replication conflicts in their inbox view instead of messages. Deleting cache.ndk fixed the issue. It seemed that something was cached in the cache.ndk and it only happened at sites where the mail servers were clustered. In sites where there was only one mail server, the issue did not occur.

I have experienced 2 situations where enhancements were made to an application and a few people did not see a difference in the application. The one most recently involved an addition to the main outline that pointed to a new view. Tried removing/re-adding the icon from the workspace, compacting the workspace and rebooting (cold) the users machine.

Only after renaming the cache files located in the data directory (which are rebuilt upon re-entering the Notes client) did the enhancements appear for the user(s).

Why not just fix the obviously broken way how caching iworks?

can we just delete the thing on client shut down already?

I think the best way would be :
IBM antiquates (abolish) cache.ndk.

Cache.ndk (.dsk) is a relict of Yesteryear (computers stone age) as RAM was short and expensive.
So abolish using cache.ndk in all client moduls:
{ Link }

Hi,

I've recently posted a script on searchdomino.com.

Embed this LotusScript in a button or in the postopen sub of a database script. With it, users can clear their local caches without deleting their cache.ndk files.

{ Link }

Here is the code :

**************************
Dim WorkSpace As New NotesUIWorkspace
Dim DbCache As NotesDatabase
Dim AllDocs As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim Doc, nextDoc As NotesDocument
Dim i As Integer

On erreur Goto ErrorHandling

Set DbCache = New NotesDatabase ("", "cache.ndk")
Set AllDocs = DbCache.AllDocuments
If AllDocs.Count > 0 Then
Print "deleting documents from cache.ndk ..."
Set Doc = AllDocs.GetFirstDocument
While Not ( Doc Is Nothing )
i = i + 1
Set NextDoc = AllDocs.GetNextDocument ( Doc )
Print "deleting documents from cache (" & Cstr (i) & "/" & Cstr ( AllDocs.Count ) & ")"
Call Doc.RemovePermanently ( True )
Set Doc = NextDoc
Wend
End If
Print "Compacting cache.ndk"
Call DbCache.Compact

Call WorkSpace.Prompt (1, "Cache.ndk Optimization", "Optimization ended with success. Ypu should restart Lotus Notes." )

Exit Sub

ErrorHandling :
Resume
Call WorkSpace.Prompt (1, "Cache.ndk Optimization", "An error has occured." )
**************************

Pascal LUCAS
{ Link }

I have voted against this, not because I think it is a bad idea but because this sort of thing should NEVER be exposed to users. Like database compaction, the crappy design of repeats and calendar entries in general, etc.