diskclean

Declarative disk cleanup for development projects. Tool-first, minimal, fast.

Scans a directory tree for development projects (Rust, Node, Python, etc.) and cleans their build artifacts using each project's native clean tool.

Install

nimble build

Usage

# Scan current directory
diskclean

# Scan with size info (slower — walks target dirs)
diskclean --size

# Scan specific directory
diskclean ~/projects

# Rust projects only
diskclean --only=rust

# Rust + Node only
diskclean --only=rust,node

# Preview what would be cleaned
diskclean --clean --dry-run

# Clean all found projects
diskclean --clean

# Exclude specific projects
diskclean --exclude=myapp --clean

Supported Project Types

Type	Marker	Clean Tool	Targets
Rust	Cargo.toml	cargo clean	target/
Zig	build.zig	-	zig-cache/, zig-out/
Swift	Package.swift	swift package clean	.build/
Gradle	build.gradle(.kts)	gradle clean	build/, .gradle/
Maven	pom.xml	mvn clean	target/
Node	package.json	-	node_modules/
Composer	composer.json	-	vendor/
Flutter	pubspec.yaml	flutter clean	build/, .dart_tool/
Haskell	stack.yaml	stack clean	.stack-work/
Elixir	mix.exs	mix clean	_build/, deps/
Nim	*.nimble	-	nimcache/
Python	pyproject.toml, setup.py	-	.venv/, dist/, etc.

Cleaning Strategy

diskclean uses a tool-first strategy:

1. If the project type has a native clean tool (e.g. cargo clean), run it
2. If the tool is not installed or fails, the project is skipped

Projects without a native clean tool (Node, Zig, Python, etc.) are detected and reported, but not cleaned by default. This is a deliberate safety choice — recursive directory removal carries inherent risk (symlink traversal, permission issues, accidental data loss).

Experimental: rm Fallback

Warning: This feature performs recursive removeDir on detected artifact directories. Use at your own risk.

To enable direct directory removal as a fallback for projects without a native clean tool, build with the -d:experimentalRm compile flag:

# Build with rm fallback enabled
nimble buildExperimental

# Or manually:
nim c -d:release -d:experimentalRm -o:bin/diskclean src/diskclean.nim

When experimentalRm is enabled:

• Projects without a tool fall back to removeDir instead of being skipped
• Symlink targets are refused as a safety measure
• --dry-run still works and shows what would be removed

When experimentalRm is not enabled (default):

• Only tool-based cleaning is available
• Projects without a tool are reported as skipped
• No filesystem modifications beyond what the native tool does

Running Tests with experimentalRm

nimble testExperimental

Options

-h, --help          Show help
-v, --version       Show version
-l, --list          List supported project types
--size              Calculate directory sizes (slower)
--clean             Actually delete (default: scan only)
--dry-run           Show what would be cleaned (with --clean)
--only=TYPE[,TYPE]  Filter by type (comma-separated)
--exclude=PATH      Exclude project path (substring match, repeatable)

License

MIT