Pearcleaner

Pearcleaner is a free, source-available, and fair-code licensed Mac app cleaner. Inspired by Freemacsoft's AppCleaner and Sun Knudsen's Privacy Guides post on his app - cleaner script, this project aims to help users better understand how macOS handles app installation/uninstallation while providing a powerful cleaning tool.

Key features of Pearcleaner include:

• Orphaned File Search: Identifies and removes remaining files from previously uninstalled applications, ensuring a more thorough cleanup.
• Development Environments Cleaning: Cleans stored files and cache for common development environments, helping to keep development setups tidy.
• App Lipo: Strips unneeded architectures from universal apps without relying on the lipo tool, so no need to install Xcode or command - line tools.
• Sentinel Monitor Helper: A lightweight (210KB) background process that uses about 2MB of RAM to watch the Trash folder for deleted apps and clean up after them.
• Mini Mode: Can be enabled from the Settings for a more compact interface.
  Menubar Icon Option: Provides easy access to the app's functions from the menubar.
• CLI Support: Allows users to interact with the app through the command - line interface.
• Drag/Drop Support: Enables easy uninstallation by dragging and dropping applications into the app.
• Deep Link Support: Offers automation capabilities through deep links, as detailed in the wiki guide.
• Finder Extension: An optional extension that lets users uninstall an app directly from Finder by right - clicking and selecting "Pearcleaner Uninstall".
• Theme System: Features a custom color selector for a personalized look.
• App Differentiation: Differentiates between regular, Safari web - apps, and mobile apps with badges like "web" and "iOS".
• Clean Uninstall Option: Allows users to uninstall Pearcleaner itself completely, removing all related files and launch items.
• Export Functions: Enables exporting app bundles for migrating apps and their cache to a new system, as well as exporting app file list search results.
• Homebrew Cleanup (Optional): Provides an option for Homebrew users to clean up their Homebrew installations.
• Custom Auto - Updater: Pulls the latest release notes and binaries from GitHub Releases, ensuring the app is always up - to - date (should run from the /Applications folder to avoid permission issues).

Pearcleaner is suitable for a wide range of users, from casual Mac users looking to keep their systems clean to developers who need to manage development environment caches. With its intuitive features and lightweight design, it offers a comprehensive solution for app management and system cleaning on macOS 13.0+ (non - beta releases). It requires Full Disk permission to search for files, Accessibility permission to delete/restore files, and Automation permission to control Finder and Terminal.

You can get Pearcleaner through Homebrew with the command brew install pearcleaner or from the releases page. Dive into a cleaner and more organized Mac experience with Pearcleaner!