WIPER

Wiper is a tool which can be used to delete unwanted files and folders from a directory tree. Files and directories to be wiped can be configured via names or regex patterns. You can also exclude specific files or folders (for example to exclude the Library folder on macOS).

Wiper can optionally move deleted items to the user’s Trash (use_trash: true) instead of permanently removing them.

Sample Config

---
wipe_out_pattern:
  - ".*\.orig"
wipe_out:
  - todelete
use_trash: false
exclude_dir:
  - Library
  - Applications
  - .Trash
  - go
  - .git
base_dir: /Users/sid/Projects

Installation

The project provides several ways to install Wiper.

Homebrew (recommended on macOS)

You can install Wiper via Homebrew if a tap or formula is available for this repository. Replace <tap> with the actual tap name:

brew tap steffakasid/wiper
brew install steffakasid/wiper/wiper

Binary releases

Download prebuilt binaries from the GitHub Releases page for your platform and unpack the archive. Make the binary executable and move it to a directory in your PATH:

tar xzf wiper_{{version}}_darwin_amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv wiper /usr/local/bin/

Build from source

Requires Go (>= 1.20). From the repository root:

go build -o wiper ./cmd/wiper
sudo mv wiper /usr/local/bin/

Usage

Basic usage (binary):

wiper --config /path/to/wiper.yaml

Flags - --config : path to YAML configuration file (default: $HOME/.config/wiper/config.yaml) - --dry-run : show what would be deleted without removing files - --use-trash : override config and move deletions to the user’s Trash

Run wiper --help for the full list of flags supported by the CLI.

Configuration Options

Wiper supports configuration via a YAML file and command-line flags. The main configuration keys are:

• base_dir : root directory to scan for deletable files and folders.

• wipe_out : list of literal file or directory names to remove (e.g. todelete). Directory names removed with wipe_out are deleted recursively.

• wipe_out_pattern : list of regex patterns; any filename matching a pattern will be removed.

• wipe_out_dirs : list of literal directory names to remove (directory-only; will not match files of the same name).

• wipe_out_pattern_dirs : list of regex patterns applied only to directory names.

Note: directory matching is explicit — Wiper will only use wipe_out_dirs / wipe_out_pattern_dirs to decide directory removals. If you want the same name to match both files and directories, include it in both wipe_out and wipe_out_dirs (or in both pattern lists). - exclude_file : list of file names to never remove. - exclude_dir : list of directory names to skip traversing/processing. - use_trash : boolean; if true, files/dirs will be moved to the user’s Trash instead of being permanently removed.

Example configuration is shown above in the Sample Config section.

Configuration Precedence

When Wiper runs, configuration values are resolved with the following precedence (highest → lowest):

1. Command-line flags (e.g. --use-trash, --config override)

2. Environment variables (if implemented by the CLI; e.g. WIPER_BASE_DIR)

3. Configuration file (YAML) located at the path given by --config, or the default config path

4. Built-in defaults hard-coded in the application

For example, if use_trash is set to true in the config file but the user passes --use-trash=false on the CLI, the CLI flag wins and Trash will not be used.

Notes & Behavior

• Directory wiping: items listed in wipe_out are evaluated as names. If a directory name matches, it is removed recursively with its contents.

• Pattern matching: wipe_out_pattern is applied to file and directory names. Patterns are regular expressions compiled with Go’s regexp package; ensure that backslashes are escaped in YAML strings.

• Exclusions: exclude_file and exclude_dir are matched by literal name. If a directory is excluded via exclude_dir, it and its subtree are skipped entirely.

• Error handling: Wiper reports errors via standard output and will continue processing other files. When run as a single process, Wiper aggregates errors and returns an exit code >0 on failures.

If you want, I can also add a short example wiper.yaml file and a sample brew tap configuration to the repo.