dsk

F**king .DS_Store ! ! ! ! ! ? Kill those pesky .DS_Store files on macOS

macOS only — Linux/Windows folks, you don't have to deal with this crap.

Features

• Interactive confirmation (or -y to skip)
• Dry-run mode (-n)
• Git safety — skips tracked files by default, --force to override
• Recursive or single-dir
• Watch mode with dsk watch
• launchd service for auto-start on boot
• Exclude patterns (-e node_modules -e .git)
• Fast parallel scanning via jwalk

Install

cargo install ds-store-killer

Nix users:

nix run github:kawayww/ds-store-killer

# or add to flake
{
  inputs.dsk.url = "github:kawayww/ds-store-killer";
}

nix-darwin (declarative service):

# flake.nix
{
  inputs.dsk.url = "github:kawayww/ds-store-killer";
}

# darwin-configuration.nix
{ inputs, ... }: {
  imports = [ inputs.dsk.darwinModules.default ];

  services.dsk = {
    enable = true;
    paths = [ "~/Downloads" "~/Projects" ]; # directories to watch recursively (default: ~)
    notify = true;           # optional: macOS notifications
    # force = true;          # optional: delete git-tracked files (DANGER)
    # exclude = [ ".git" ];  # optional: exclude patterns
  };
}

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/kawayww/ds-store-killer
cd ds-store-killer
cargo build --release

Usage

dsk kill                      # current dir, asks before deleting
dsk kill -y                   # just delete, don't ask
dsk kill -n                   # dry-run, scan only
dsk kill -r ~/Projects        # recursive
dsk kill -r --force ~/repo    # include git-tracked files
dsk kill -ry --stats .        # recursive, no confirm, show timing
dsk kill -ry -e node_modules  # exclude pattern

dsk watch ~/Desktop           # watch and auto-delete
dsk watch . -e .git           # watch with exclusions

Git Safety

Deleting git-tracked .DS_Store messes up your commit history. By default, dsk skips them.

dsk kill -r ~/my-repo           # skips tracked files
dsk kill -r --force ~/my-repo   # includes them, still confirms
dsk kill -ry --force ~/my-repo  # includes them, no confirmation

Why would .DS_Store be tracked?

• Someone forgot .gitignore
• Force-added with git add -f
• .gitignore was added after the fact

Note: Git safety requires git to be installed. If git is not found, dsk will warn and proceed without the safety check.

Cache

Non-recursive scans are cached in $TMPDIR/dsk-cache/. Auto-invalidates when directory changes.

Recursive mode doesn't cache — can't reliably detect subdirectory changes, so we rescan every time.

Watch Mode

Watch directories and auto-delete .DS_Store files instantly.

Behavior:

1. Recursive: Monitors all subdirectories automatically (no -r flag needed).
2. Initial Scan: Performs a full recursive scan and cleanup on startup.
3. Real-time: Uses macOS FSEvents to monitor changes efficiently.
4. Non-interactive: Automatically deletes files without asking.
5. Git Safety:
   • Default: Skips git-tracked .DS_Store files (logs a warning).
   • --force: Auto-deletes ALL .DS_Store files, including git-tracked ones.

Note: Unlike kill mode where --force just allows deletion (with confirmation), in watch mode --force means aggressive auto-deletion of tracked .DS_Store files.

dsk watch                # current dir
dsk watch ~/Desktop      # specific dir
dsk watch . -e .git      # with exclusions
dsk watch --notify       # send macOS notification on delete
dsk watch --force        # DANGER: auto-delete git-tracked .DS_Store files too

Runs in foreground, Ctrl+C to stop.

launchd Service

For background monitoring that survives reboots:

dsk service install                       # watch ~ by default
dsk service install ~/Desktop ~/Projects  # multi-path
dsk service install --notify              # enable notifications
dsk service install --force               # (DANGER) delete git-tracked files
dsk service install -e Downloads          # exclude patterns
dsk service start
dsk service status
dsk service stop
dsk service uninstall

Uses FSEvents (via notify crate) — watching deep directory trees is efficient and doesn't consume file descriptors per subdirectory (solving os error 24).

Logs: /tmp/dsk.out.log, /tmp/dsk.err.log

CLI Reference

Usage: dsk <COMMAND>

Commands:
  kill     Kill .DS_Store files
  watch    Watch directory and auto-delete
  service  Manage launchd service
  help     Print help

dsk kill [OPTIONS] [PATH]
  -r, --recursive    Recursive deletion
  -e, --exclude      Exclude patterns
  -y, --yes          Skip confirmation
  -n, --dry-run      Scan only, don't delete
  -q, --quiet        Don't list each file
      --force        Allow deleting git-tracked .DS_Store files
      --stats        Show timing

dsk watch [PATH]
  -e, --exclude      Exclude patterns
      --notify       Send macOS notification on delete
      --force        (DANGER) Auto-delete git-tracked .DS_Store files

dsk service install [PATHS...] [OPTIONS]
  -e, --exclude      Exclude patterns (persisted in plist)
      --notify       Enable macOS notifications
      --force        (DANGER) Delete git-tracked .DS_Store files

dsk service <uninstall|start|stop|status>

License

MIT