folder_clean — remove OS junk¶

Recursively finds the metadata files operating systems scatter through folders, and removes them. Dry run by default — a bare run reports what it would delete and removes nothing; pass --delete to actually delete.

folder_clean <folder> [options]

Built-in junk set¶

OS	Files
macOS	`.DS_Store`, `._*` (AppleDouble forks), `.localized`
Windows	`Thumbs.db`, `ehthumbs.db`, `desktop.ini`
Linux	`.directory`

Options¶

Option	Description
`--delete`	Actually delete matches (otherwise dry run)
`--pattern <glob>`	Extra file to treat as junk (repeatable)
`--patterns-only`	Use only `--pattern` globs, not the built-in set
`-j, --jobs <N\\|-1>`	Threads for scanning/deleting (`-1` = all cores)
`-o, --output <file>`	CSV report (default `clean-report.csv`)
`-v, --verbose`	Print each file as it is processed

The report has relative_path,size_bytes,action, where action is WOULD_DELETE (dry run), DELETED, or ERROR.

Exit codes: 0 nothing found · 1 argument/IO error · 2 junk found (and deleted, with --delete).

Examples¶

folder_clean "J:\Photos"                       # preview only
folder_clean "J:\Photos" --delete --jobs -1    # remove, using all cores
folder_clean ./project --pattern "*~" --pattern "*.tmp" --delete
folder_clean ./build --patterns-only --pattern "*.o" --pattern "*.obj" --delete