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Unfortunately lots of apps keep large caches. For example almost all electron apps keep the last two or so versions around when they auto-update. And since Ele

by 323 4y ago

Unfortunately lots of apps keep large caches. For example almost all electron apps keep the last two or so versions around when they auto-update. And since Electron apps are around 250 MB that's 0.5 GB of old versions per app. I recently discovered a big cache - in terms of file number, 6000 files - of basically every edit I did in the last 6 months in VS Code - called Local History. Also, every directory you launch VS Code in will have a workspace cache associated with it, it can be 200 MB if you have C++ files in it, and VS Code will not remove it when you delete the original dir. And so on... I wish they would all integrate into a master clear caches system app, where you would have the opportunity of seeing them and clearing them. A bit like on Android.

cyberge99 4y ago
Check out DaisyDisk. It shows how much space is “purgable” (cache files like this, etc).
- killjoywashere 4y ago
  I love DaisyDisk. Easily one of my top 20 apps of all time.
  - elevaet 4y ago
    I agree! It's worth paying for for the time and the disk space it helps you save. Beautiful visual and UX design.
    - sys_64738 4y ago
      Why pay to delete stuff? Free tools in the OS do that already.
      - elevaet 4y ago
        Yeah for sure, but this tool is really good for helping you visualize and discover what's eating up your storage, better than anything built in to any of the OSes that I use anyways.
- JadeNB 4y ago
  Disk Inventory X is a nagware alternative: http://derlien.com http://derlien.com .
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    Or Filelight, which is free! https://apps.kde.org/filelight/ https://apps.kde.org/filelight/
    - behnamoh 4y ago
      only Linux and Windows.
      - JadeNB 4y ago
        The source is available (https://invent.kde.org/utilities/filelight https://invent.kde.org/utilities/filelight), and there's a chance it'll build on macOS. I haven't tried, though (and am not the original recommender).
        smoldesu 4y ago
        No reason it shouldn't work on MacOS, a lot of KDE/Qt projects compile fine without any additional changes. But yes, if you're on Mac it's probably easier to buy Daisy Disk.
  - jbc1 4y ago
    Grandperspective has the same look as disk inventory x but I found it to be significantly faster. I haven’t noticed any nag screens but I didn’t when using disk inventory x either so I might just be immune to them. https://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ https://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
    - robin_reala 4y ago
      You can also buy Grandperspective from the app store for a few dollars to help support the overall development.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
ryandrake 4y ago
Xcode is a huge offender, at least for me. At 36GB, not only is it the largest application in my Applications folder (it is larger than all my other applications combined), it also litters /Library/Developer with about 9GB of shit (mostly simulator runtimes), and then litters ~/Library/Developer with 33GB of shit (mostly caches). Almost 80GB disk footprint... just to develop software?
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  I have a sidebar alias to my DerivedData directory (and I have Xcode set up to use it for everything). I'll flush it, from time to time. I may also delete old archives. I have hundreds of them.
  - saagarjha 4y ago
    I would recommend being cautious about clearing old archives, as they will have symbols to help you analyze crash reports and such.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      Good point. I tend to keep the last month of releases, and whatever is currently on the store. I find those symbols to be kinda worthless, though. My best tool for diagnosing a crash report is a Ouija board.
      - saagarjha 4y ago
        Symbols are a godsend when dealing with difficult crash reports. Have you ever tried walking through the process of analyzing one with an expert? It's a great way to level up your diagnosis skills.
        nicky0 4y ago
        I usually just Google "how to symbolicate crash report" because I forgot how to do it it again.
srvmshr 4y ago
I was looking for previous installed versions of VSCode. Any pointers where did you find them in your `~/Library/`
Derbasti 4y ago
I once had a Photos library that consumed 250 Gb - for 80 Gb worth of photos. Thankfully there was some third party software that could automatically export and reimport all photos (it took hours), which shrank the library back to its actual size. Nevertheless, I soon stopped using Photos...
niknetniko 4y ago
> I recently discovered a big cache - in terms of file number, 6000 files - of basically every edit I did in the last 6 months in VS Code - called Local History. Isn't this a feature? I wouldn't want my editor to remove my local history without me knowing. I frequently use this local history (in Intellij), for whatever reason (it's easier than git, the project doesn't have version control, I haven't committed yet, ...)
- kevincox 4y ago
  6 months is a very long time for this though. I imagine that I would almost never want local history past a day or two. Beyond that I would look to my version control system. Of course if the data is small why not keep it.
  - upbeat_general 4y ago
    I do think there should be a default expiry but I’ve absolutely went back many many months and found old versions of files in cases I didn’t have proper commits.
arve0 4y ago
The history feature in VSCode have saved me multiple times. To me, 200MB per workspace is worth it.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Are you not using Git/any SCM or what?
  - zuhsetaqi 4y ago
    They don't do anything automatically. VSCodes feature does keep every saved state of every file
    - capableweb 4y ago
      Of course not. But why would I need "every saved state of every file"? The number of times that would have saved me would be zero, because I never ended up in a case where that would have saved me. Things I need saved are saved as stashes/things put in git, and the rest are things I don't need saved. What scenarios are there where things like this would have saved me somehow?
anta40 4y ago
True: Whatsapp, MS Teams, Android Studio, Homebrew, etc. Really pain in the a*ss if you're on 128 GB Mac.
mcculley 4y ago
There should be one directory where all apps keep caches in subdirectories, managed by the operating system, evicting cached files as necessary using some LRU policy. (MacOS has well-defined cache directories, but nothing managing them.) Likewise for system RAM. Lots of apps are using RAM to cache with no way to coordinate.
smnscu 4y ago
That vscode cache saved my ass at least once, when I deleted uncommitted changes accidentally.

by 323 4y ago

cyberge99 4y ago

Check out DaisyDisk. It shows how much space is “purgable” (cache files like this, etc).

killjoywashere 4y ago
I love DaisyDisk. Easily one of my top 20 apps of all time.
- elevaet 4y ago
  I agree! It's worth paying for for the time and the disk space it helps you save. Beautiful visual and UX design.
  - sys_64738 4y ago
    Why pay to delete stuff? Free tools in the OS do that already.
    - elevaet 4y ago
      Yeah for sure, but this tool is really good for helping you visualize and discover what's eating up your storage, better than anything built in to any of the OSes that I use anyways.
JadeNB 4y ago
Disk Inventory X is a nagware alternative: http://derlien.com http://derlien.com .
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Or Filelight, which is free! https://apps.kde.org/filelight/ https://apps.kde.org/filelight/
  - behnamoh 4y ago
    only Linux and Windows.
    - JadeNB 4y ago
      The source is available (https://invent.kde.org/utilities/filelight https://invent.kde.org/utilities/filelight), and there's a chance it'll build on macOS. I haven't tried, though (and am not the original recommender).
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        No reason it shouldn't work on MacOS, a lot of KDE/Qt projects compile fine without any additional changes. But yes, if you're on Mac it's probably easier to buy Daisy Disk.
- jbc1 4y ago
  Grandperspective has the same look as disk inventory x but I found it to be significantly faster. I haven’t noticed any nag screens but I didn’t when using disk inventory x either so I might just be immune to them. https://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ https://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
  - robin_reala 4y ago
    You can also buy Grandperspective from the app store for a few dollars to help support the overall development.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

ryandrake 4y ago

Xcode is a huge offender, at least for me. At 36GB, not only is it the largest application in my Applications folder (it is larger than all my other applications combined), it also litters /Library/Developer with about 9GB of shit (mostly simulator runtimes), and then litters ~/Library/Developer with 33GB of shit (mostly caches). Almost 80GB disk footprint... just to develop software?

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
I have a sidebar alias to my DerivedData directory (and I have Xcode set up to use it for everything). I'll flush it, from time to time. I may also delete old archives. I have hundreds of them.
- saagarjha 4y ago
  I would recommend being cautious about clearing old archives, as they will have symbols to help you analyze crash reports and such.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    Good point. I tend to keep the last month of releases, and whatever is currently on the store. I find those symbols to be kinda worthless, though. My best tool for diagnosing a crash report is a Ouija board.
    - saagarjha 4y ago
      Symbols are a godsend when dealing with difficult crash reports. Have you ever tried walking through the process of analyzing one with an expert? It's a great way to level up your diagnosis skills.
      - nicky0 4y ago
        I usually just Google "how to symbolicate crash report" because I forgot how to do it it again.

srvmshr 4y ago

I was looking for previous installed versions of VSCode. Any pointers where did you find them in your `~/Library/`

Derbasti 4y ago

I once had a Photos library that consumed 250 Gb - for 80 Gb worth of photos. Thankfully there was some third party software that could automatically export and reimport all photos (it took hours), which shrank the library back to its actual size. Nevertheless, I soon stopped using Photos...

niknetniko 4y ago

> I recently discovered a big cache - in terms of file number, 6000 files - of basically every edit I did in the last 6 months in VS Code - called Local History. Isn't this a feature? I wouldn't want my editor to remove my local history without me knowing. I frequently use this local history (in Intellij), for whatever reason (it's easier than git, the project doesn't have version control, I haven't committed yet, ...)

kevincox 4y ago
6 months is a very long time for this though. I imagine that I would almost never want local history past a day or two. Beyond that I would look to my version control system. Of course if the data is small why not keep it.
- upbeat_general 4y ago
  I do think there should be a default expiry but I’ve absolutely went back many many months and found old versions of files in cases I didn’t have proper commits.

arve0 4y ago

The history feature in VSCode have saved me multiple times. To me, 200MB per workspace is worth it.

capableweb 4y ago
Are you not using Git/any SCM or what?
- zuhsetaqi 4y ago
  They don't do anything automatically. VSCodes feature does keep every saved state of every file
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Of course not. But why would I need "every saved state of every file"? The number of times that would have saved me would be zero, because I never ended up in a case where that would have saved me. Things I need saved are saved as stashes/things put in git, and the rest are things I don't need saved. What scenarios are there where things like this would have saved me somehow?

anta40 4y ago

True: Whatsapp, MS Teams, Android Studio, Homebrew, etc. Really pain in the a*ss if you're on 128 GB Mac.

mcculley 4y ago

There should be one directory where all apps keep caches in subdirectories, managed by the operating system, evicting cached files as necessary using some LRU policy. (MacOS has well-defined cache directories, but nothing managing them.) Likewise for system RAM. Lots of apps are using RAM to cache with no way to coordinate.

smnscu 4y ago

That vscode cache saved my ass at least once, when I deleted uncommitted changes accidentally.