Helper tools for cleaning home directory

blacktemplar · 2018-07-18 14:19:46

Hi guys, I am searching for tools which help me to clean up my home directory. I know that I have a lot of directories which could be removed/are not needed anymore, but searching for each of the directories what they do and if I can remove them is quite tedious (especially since searching for dot-directories is quite hard).

What I am looking for are either some advices how to clean my home directory (and how to keep them clean), or what tools I could use for it. What I am thinking of is maybe a tool which has a big database of known directories/files and tells me for each directory/file in my home directory if it has some information about it and if it has the information + maybe some hints if it is safe to delete the directory (for example that the dir does not contain any preference files).

wayne6260 · 2018-07-18 14:44:43

I don't know any program that would do that, but I'm not quite sure why you need to clean up your /home directory. I have some folders and some hidden files in my /home/wayne directory. What problem are you seeking to solve?

Trilby · 2018-07-18 14:51:11

blacktemplar wrote:

(especially since searching for dot-directories is quite hard).

Why is this hard? `find` finds them just fine, as does `ls -a`.

You mention finding empty directories, GNU find has a flag for that.

blacktemplar · 2018-07-18 18:47:36

wayne6260 wrote:

I don't know any program that would do that, but I'm not quite sure why you need to clean up your /home directory. I have some folders and some hidden files in my /home/wayne directory. What problem are you seeking to solve?

I just like to have a clean home directory where no config files of applications I don't use anymore are or config files of applications I only used for one task and never changed any configs. And I also like to know for the things in my home directory from where they are coming and for what they are, so such an informative helping application would be awesome in my opinion .

Trilby wrote:

blacktemplar wrote:
(especially since searching for dot-directories is quite hard).
Why is this hard? `find` finds them just fine, as does `ls -a`.
You mention finding empty directories, GNU find has a flag for that.

I ment "searching for dot-directories" on the internet for descriptions what is in this dot directory (its just hard to specify the dot in google or similar ).

I know how to find empty directories, but I am not just interested in empty directories but also as I mentioned above in directories containing config (or even worse cache) of apps which I don't use anymore (and probably will not use anymore).

Last edited by blacktemplar (2018-07-18 18:48:05)

jasonwryan · 2018-07-18 18:51:50

Delete everything and then restore just what you need from your backups. Simple.

Trilby · 2018-07-18 19:38:52

blacktemplar wrote:

... directories containing config (or even worse cache) of apps which I don't use anymore (and probably will not use anymore).

Remove anything in ~/.config that you don't need.

Remove anything and everything in ~/.cache anytime you want.

Remove any ~/.* that you don't need.

You can't do harm to a system by removing anything under $HOME. At worst, you'll remove configuration settings you previously set up. But if you set them up you should know about them and know that you want them ... so you wouldn't delete them.

Anything you don't recognize, nuke.

Last edited by Trilby (2018-07-18 23:36:51)

seth · 2018-07-18 21:31:38

You can also look at the atime (assuming you don't block atime updates in the mount options) - if you don't know what a file is and it hasn't been touched since years, it's most likely cruft.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-07-18 14:19:46

Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#2 2018-07-18 14:44:43

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#3 2018-07-18 14:51:11

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#4 2018-07-18 18:47:36

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#5 2018-07-18 18:51:50

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#6 2018-07-18 19:38:52

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

#7 2018-07-18 21:31:38

Re: Helper tools for cleaning home directory

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