Clear cache in Symfony: `cache:clear` or `rm -rf`?

cache:clear wipes previously created cache items, but also, it does a cache warm-up. Upon this, you application should load very fast due to the fact that cache was already pre-populated.

On the other hand, rm -rf does only one part of the job. You should notice performance impact when you try to load you app the first time after this.

I would also like to point out another thing: permissions. If you are logged in as root for example, and you did not set access rights via setfacl (or any other method), cache:clear will most probably create your cache items owned by root. This could be an issue, down the line.

Hope this helps a bit...

"cache:clear" command not only removes the cache but they usually build the updated cache data (warm up) so that symfony does not have to create one after the first request comes, which is the reason that it takes more time than the mere removal of files under your cache folder by "rm -rf". Even if you can finish that command faster, it would take time for you to process the first request, if you have not created cache in advance by this command.

http://symfony.com/doc/current/console/usage.html

So, usually it is better to run cache:clear, at least in the whole process of deployment. The occasion you would use rm command is usually only when some file permissions have gone wrong (i.e. maybe you had run a command with a wrong user ) and there were no choices left, I think.