I wanted to clean old temporary files and caches from my macOS with a script instead of using a shady paid app, so I created a simple script for that.<p>Pull requests are very welcome for other unused files to clean up storage space!
1) Deleting individual files from ~/Library/Caches based only on their mtime is not safe - especially since some files (like files extracted from archives or downloaded over HTTP) may be stored with an mtime matching the source data. At a minimum, you really need to base this on the last access time; even then, I would be hesitant to delete individual files from an application's cache while leaving others.<p>2) /tmp and /var/tmp are cleared on reboot. Clearing them manually is probably not worth the hassle.<p>3) A week is <i>way</i> too short as a default for DAYS_TO_KEEP. A more appropriate value might be on the order of 30 - 90 days.<p>4) brew doctor is purely a diagnostic tool; it doesn't perform any maintenance operations. It doesn't belong in this script.
Yep, df gonna run this rando script with such a detailed and inspiring README...<p>(in all seriousness folks, if you're gonna show HN, spend some time on your README, docs, etc).
I’ve found that with a good dotfiles[1] setup + cloud storage, it is better to just reset the whole system and re-install whatever is needed.<p>The ability to do that is actually quite powerful as both disaster recovery and getting new hardware - it is in my mind so much cleaner to just install everything again. The built in migration tools have always done too little or too much for my taste. Dotfiles feel just right.<p>Funny enough hkdobrev introduced me to this philosophy almost 15years ago which I still use to this day and try to spread wherever I am. Thank you!<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/webpro/awesome-dotfiles">https://github.com/webpro/awesome-dotfiles</a>
It would be really great if operating systems (and applications) didn't have to be constantly cleaned up in the first place. Way too much software uses the user's filesystem as their personal dumping ground for crap. Crap that they leave around when not running and crap that they leave behind when they're uninstalled. My ~/Library directory is currently 47G(!!) and it's mostly a bunch of shit that I have no idea whether I need or not. As the user, I should be the one who decides what to put on my filesystem, not some application developer. We've completely lost control of our own filesystems.
Loved AppleJack (free), back when it worked:<p><a href="https://applejack.sourceforge.io" rel="nofollow">https://applejack.sourceforge.io</a><p>Nowadays, Onyx (also free) tends to do the trick:<p><a href="https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html</a><p>Does this script close any gaps left by Onyx's MAINTENANCE routines?
I'm sure this script is wonderful, but it's not a replacement for the apparent target of the author's disparagement, created by the legit folks at MacPaw (established 2008). A good place to start is the free Unarchiver, which can extract anything you can throw at it. <a href="https://macpaw.com/the-unarchiver" rel="nofollow">https://macpaw.com/the-unarchiver</a>
Review:
- It took a while to run on my old Macbook. 30 minutes or so.
- Mac still seems to boot up slow. I don't really notice the performance improvement.
- "System Data" still takes up an insane amount of my disk space.<p>But hey, maybe my apps will be snappier?<p>If my 10 year old macbook doesn't see much improvement, I don't think a newer machine will see it either.