cleanup

🧹 macOS Disk Cleanup Tool

A comprehensive, interactive bash script for safely cleaning up disk space on macOS by removing cache files, development artifacts, and temporary data.

✨ Features

• Safe Cleanup: Removes only regenerable caches and temporary files
• Interactive Mode: Prompts for confirmation before each cleanup category
• Dry Run Support: Preview what would be deleted without actually removing anything
• Smart Detection: Only shows cleanup options for installed tools
• Detailed Statistics: Reports success, skipped, and failed operations
• Color-Coded Output: Easy-to-read terminal output with status indicators

🎯 What It Cleans

Category	Items Cleaned
Development	Xcode DerivedData, iOS DeviceSupport, Simulators
Creative	Adobe Premiere/After Effects media cache
Browsers	Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Safari caches
Package Managers	npm, pnpm, yarn, pip, Homebrew, Composer
Build Tools	Maven, Gradle, Ivy, Cargo (Rust)
System	Log files (30+ days old), Saved Application States
Trash	System Trash, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud
Other	Spotify, Playwright, Thunderbird, TypeScript caches

📦 Installation

# Clone or copy the script to your bin directory
cp cleanup-disk ~/bin/cleanup/

# Make it executable
chmod +x ~/bin/cleanup/cleanup-disk

# Add to PATH (add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc)
export PATH="$HOME/bin/cleanup:$PATH"
# Command aliases:
alias cleanup="cleanup-disk"
alias cleanup-dry="cleanup-disk --dry-run"
alias cleanup-all="cleanup-disk --all"

Usage

cleanup-disk [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Description
-d, --dry-run	Show what would be deleted without deleting
-a, --all	Clean everything without prompts (non-interactive)
-c, --common	Auto-clean common items (browsers, package managers, logs)
-h, --help	Show help message

Examples

# Interactive mode (default) - prompts for each category
cleanup-disk

# Preview what would be cleaned (recommended first run)
cleanup-disk --dry-run

# Clean common caches without prompts
cleanup-disk --common

# Full automatic cleanup (use with caution)
cleanup-disk --all

# Combine dry-run with common to preview
cleanup-disk -d -c

Output Example

════════════════════════════════════════
  macOS Disk Cleanup Tool
════════════════════════════════════════

Current disk usage:
Used: 180G / Free: 70G (72% full)

? Clean browser caches (Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge)? (y/N): y
> ✓ Removing: Google caches (incl. Chrome) (1.2G)
> ✓ Removing: Firefox Cache (340M)
> ⊘ Brave Cache - Not found, skipping

════════════════════════════════════════
Cleanup complete!

Final disk usage:
Used: 178G / Free: 72G (71% full)

Space freed: ~1.5GB

Summary:
> ✓ Successfully cleaned: 12 items
> ⊘ Skipped (empty): 3 items
> ⊘ Skipped (not found): 5 items
════════════════════════════════════════

Technical Details

Dependencies

• Required: Bash 4.0+, macOS (tested on Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia)
• Optional: Xcode, Node.js, Python, Homebrew, Rust, Java (for respective cleanups)

Safety Features

• Checks if applications are running before cleaning their caches
• Uses du to calculate sizes before deletion
• Skips empty directories automatically
• Graceful error handling with detailed failure reports
• Uses Finder AppleScript for safe Trash emptying

Environment Variables

The script automatically sets:

• HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 - Prevents Homebrew from auto-updating during cleanup

Important Notes

1. iOS Backups: The script can clean iOS device backups. Only use this option if you have recent iCloud or iTunes backups.

2. Safari Cleanup: For complete Safari cache cleanup, close Safari before running.

3. Xcode: Cleaning DerivedData will require rebuilding projects on next open.

4. First Run: Always use --dry-run first to see what would be deleted.

License

MIT License - Feel free to use and modify as needed.

Acknowledgments

Inspired by the need to reclaim disk space on development machines without manually hunting for cache directories.