Preen 0.1.3

• Select multiple apps in Uninstall and review their removal steps and leftovers together before confirming.
• Enable User installed only to hide protected apps and apps identified as system-installed from available APT, Ubuntu installer, and Snap records.
• Preview multiple apps from the command line with preen uninstall --dry-run <id> <id>.

Preen 0.1.2

What's new

• Live progress on Clean, Projects and Disk: a progress bar, the location being measured, how many are done, and how much space has been found so far. Disk lists each folder as soon as it is measured.
• Overview redesign: tiles keep a fixed size, so changing numbers no longer shift the layout. Adds a health ring that explains its score (for example "/ is 91% full · battery health 48%"), per-core CPU bars, a combined download/upload chart, colour-coded disk and temperature bars, and battery capacity.
• Uninstall sorting: sort by name, size, least used or recently installed. Each app shows when it was last opened and when it was installed or updated. Command line: preen uninstall --list --sort used.
• Choose project folders: the Folders… button on Projects adds or removes the folders Preen searches for build folders. Command line: preen purge --paths, --add-path, --remove-path.

Fixed

• Last-used dates for apps installed in paths with spaces, such as /opt/YouTube Music.
• The website no longer scrolls sideways on phones.

Install (Ubuntu / Kubuntu 26.04)

wget https://github.com/youxufkhan/preen/releases/download/v0.1.2/preen_0.1.2_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./preen_0.1.2_amd64.deb

Or run curl -fsSL https://youxufkhan.github.io/preen/install.sh | sh. Verify downloads with sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS.

"Last used" is an estimate based on when the program file was last read, accurate to about a day. For Snap and Flatpak apps it comes from the app's data folder.

Preen 0.1.1

Security fix for the root helper. Use this release instead of 0.1.0.

Fixed

• The privileged pkg-remove action now accepts only valid Debian package names. Before this fix, a name ending in + (which apt reads as "install") or a pattern such as a* could reach apt-get as root through pkexec. Package and snap names must now end in a letter or digit and contain no pattern characters, and the package must match an installed package exactly.
• Every package apt would remove together with the chosen app now passes the same system-package checks as the app itself.
• flatpak-remove requires an exact installed application id.

Exploiting this needed a process running as you that could start pkexec preen helper and get past the password prompt (or run within polkit's 5-minute grace period after you entered it).

Install (Ubuntu / Kubuntu 26.04)

wget https://github.com/youxufkhan/preen/releases/download/v0.1.1/preen_0.1.1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./preen_0.1.1_amd64.deb

Everything else is as in 0.1.0. Verify downloads with sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS.

Preen 0.1.0

Superseded by 0.1.1, which fixes input validation in the root helper. Please install 0.1.1.

First release of Preen: one app to clean, uninstall, analyze and monitor Linux, inspired by Mole for macOS.

What's in it

• Clean: caches, logs, old snap versions, crash dumps, old kernels, browser and Electron app caches, and developer caches (uv, pnpm, npm, Bun, pip, Gradle, Cargo, Go). Running apps are skipped.
• Uninstall: apt, snap, Flatpak and AppImage apps with their leftovers. Settings stay unless you select them; leftovers go to the Trash.
• Disk: what uses space, folder by folder, with Move to Trash.
• Projects: rebuildable node_modules, target, build, .venv and similar folders.
• Installers: .deb, .rpm, .run, .exe and similar files in Downloads and Desktop.
• Maintenance: rebuilds font and app-menu caches, flushes DNS, sets snap retention, and runs health checks.
• Overview: live CPU, memory, disks, network, battery, sensors and the busiest processes.
• The same features from the terminal: preen clean --dry-run, preen uninstall --list, preen status --watch, and the rest.

Install (Ubuntu / Kubuntu 26.04)

wget https://github.com/youxufkhan/preen/releases/download/v0.1.0/preen_0.1.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./preen_0.1.0_amd64.deb

The .deb needs Qt 6.10 and KDE Frameworks 6. On other distributions, use preen-linux-amd64 (the command-line engine, a single static binary) or build from source.

Safety

Every change is shown for review first. Every delete passes one validated gate (fuzz-tested). Root work goes through pkexec with a fixed action list, and everything removed is logged (preen history).

Known limitations

• Tested on one Kubuntu 26.04 machine. Previews and user-level cleaning were verified. Actions that need your password (apt cache, old kernels, snaps, package removal) are new: run --dry-run first and report issues.
• Not yet supported: Fedora and Arch packages, Flatpak unused-runtime cleanup, cleanup of data left by apps removed long ago, and fingerprint login for sudo.

Verify downloads with sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS.