dscan

Interactive disk scanner & cleaner for macOS and Linux — a friendly desktop app and a terminal TUI, sharing one engine.

dscan scans known cache/build/package locations plus the largest items in your home dir, groups them by category and safety tier, and lets you check off what to clean. Regenerable caches are hard-deleted; real user data is moved to the OS Trash; protected data (browser profiles, messaging apps, SSH keys) is never selectable.

Desktop app

Download the latest .dmg (macOS), .AppImage or .deb (Linux) from the Releases page.

• macOS: signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple — open the .dmg, drag dscan to Applications, and launch it normally (no right-click / xattr workaround needed). Updates install automatically.
• Linux (unsigned): chmod +x dscan-*.AppImage and run it, or install the .deb.

It auto-scans on launch, pre-selects the regenerable SAFE caches, and reclaims space in one click — REVIEW items are opt-in, KEEP items are locked.

Highlights:

• Clean up — caches & build output plus your largest files, grouped by safety tier; clean the pre-selected SAFE items in one click.
• Projects — find and clear heavy build artifacts (node_modules, .next, target, __pycache__, …) across a folder, grouped by kind.
• Map — a visual disk-usage treemap: drill into folders and Reveal, Exclude, or Move-to-Trash a tile.
• Apps (Apple Silicon) — audit installed apps by architecture, flag Intel-only apps that run under Rosetta, and uninstall an app together with its leftover support files in one step.
• Exclude folders — mark folders dscan should never scan or clean.
• Scheduled scans — an optional background scan (daily/weekly) that notifies you, with an opt-in auto-clean of SAFE caches.
• Dark mode — System / Light / Dark, following your OS by default.
• Self-update — Linux installs updates in the background; macOS notifies and links to the download.

Screenshots

Clean up	Projects
Map	Apps
Schedule

Command line

dscan              # scan + interactive checklist
dscan --system     # also scan system dirs (slow, may need permissions)
dscan --dry-run    # preview what would be cleaned, delete nothing
dscan --yes        # non-interactive: clean all SAFE items (caches/build), no TTY needed
dscan --yes --dry-run   # preview the non-interactive clean
dscan --version

Keys (interactive): ↑/↓ move · space toggle · enter review · enter/y confirm · q quit.

--yes is for scripts/CI: it cleans only regenerable SAFE items and never touches REVIEW/KEEP data or runs tool-commands.

Install the CLI

With a Go toolchain installed:

go install github.com/gor3a/disk-scan@latest   # installs the `disk-scan` binary into $GOBIN

Or build from a checkout as dscan:

go build -o ~/.local/bin/dscan .   # ensure ~/.local/bin is on your PATH

Safety

• SAFE (caches, build output) → hard-deleted (regenerates on next use).
• REVIEW (user data) → moved to the OS Trash, recoverable:
  • macOS: via Finder, so items get "Put Back" support.
  • Linux: via gio trash, or the XDG trash spec (~/.local/share/Trash with .trashinfo records) when gio is unavailable.
  • Trashing never overwrites an existing trashed item and works across filesystems (copy + remove fallback).
• KEEP (browser/messaging/SSH) → shown but never selectable.
• A confirm screen summarizes deletes vs trash vs tool-cleanups before anything is touched; --dry-run performs no deletion at all.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — especially new catalog entries for caches we don't yet recognize. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the dev setup, the TDD workflow, the safety rules around deletion, and how to add a catalog entry.

Please also read our Code of Conduct. To report a security issue, see SECURITY.md (do not open a public issue).

Support

dscan is free and open source. If it reclaimed some space for you and you'd like to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi ☕. It's always appreciated and never required.

License

MIT © gor3a