Clean Unwanted

A simple command-line tool to recursively delete unwanted system or metadata files (e.g., .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, ._*) from any directory. Built with Typer.

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🚀 Installation

With pipx (recommended)

poetry install
poetry build
pipx install dist/clean_unwanted-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

Then from anywhere, you can run:

clean-unwanted /path/to/dir

From source with Poetry

poetry install

Then within the project directory, you can run the tool directly:

poetry run clean-unwanted /path/to/dir

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Usage

Usage: clean-unwanted [OPTIONS] DIRECTORY

Arguments:
  DIRECTORY  Target directory to clean.  [default: .]

Options:
  -p, --pattern TEXT  File pattern(s) to remove (can use wildcards). [default: .DS_Store,Thumbs.db, .Spotlight-V100, desktop.ini, ._*]
  -v, --verbose       Print each matched file.
  --dry-run           Preview what will be deleted without removing anything.
  --help              Show this message and exit.

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🧼 Default Behavior

Running the tool with just a directory will recursively remove these files:

• .DS_Store
• Thumbs.db
• .Spotlight-V100
• desktop.ini
• ._* (resource forks from macOS)

clean-unwanted /path/to/dir

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🧩 Custom Patterns

You can override the default list using one or more --pattern (or -p) flags. These support glob-style wildcards (*, ?, etc.).

Examples:

• Remove .bak and .tmp files:

  clean-unwanted . -p "*.bak" -p "*.tmp"

• Match a specific file name:

  clean-unwanted . -p ".DS_Store"

• Match all hidden files:

  clean-unwanted . -p ".*"

Note: Specifying --pattern replaces the default list.

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📂 Example

clean-unwanted %userprofile%/projects --dry-run --verbose -p "*.log" -p "Thumbs.db"

This will preview the deletion of all .log files and Thumbs.db in the specified directory, showing each matched file without actually deleting anything.

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🛠 License

MIT License.