Clear TimeMachine local snapshots

[bkeepers]

What problem does this solve?

When configured to use TimeMachine for backups, the mac will keep local snapshots until they can be synced to the TimeMachine disk. This was >400GB on my Mac today.

Proposed solution

for d in $(tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates | grep "-"); do sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $d; done

Alternatives considered

No response

Type of change

New scanner / category

Checklist

• I searched existing issues and this hasn't been requested before
• I'd be willing to implement this myself

[guhcostan]

Hey @bkeepers, great suggestion! Time Machine local snapshots can definitely eat a lot of disk space — 400GB is wild.

The proposed command is clean and correct. Would love to see this added as a new scanner category. Feel free to open a PR — I'd be happy to review and merge it!

[guhcostan]

@bkeepers feature request válida e aprovada! Ficamos aguardando um PR, mas caso não venha em breve, podemos implementar internamente. O comando proposto é direto:

for d in $(tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates | grep "-"); do sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $d; done

Vale notar que essa operação requer sudo, então precisará de atenção especial no fluxo de permissões do CLI. Continuamos com a issue aberta na fila de features — contribuições são bem-vindas!

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Generated by Claude Code

[guhcostan]

@bkeepers This has been implemented in branch claude/inspiring-pasteur-OPpJN as a new maintenance task (same pattern as --dns and --purgeable).

Usage:

mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine
# or if sudo is needed:
sudo mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine

Implementation details (src/maintenance/timemachine.ts):

• Uses spawn (not exec) to prevent command injection
• Snapshot date strings are validated against /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{6}$/ before being passed to tmutil — no user input ever reaches the shell directly
• Handles sudo gracefully: tries sudo -n first (non-interactive); if unavailable, reports a clear message with the correct sudo command
• 60-second per-snapshot timeout to handle large snapshots

The sudo requirement depends on the macOS version and Time Machine configuration. On some setups it works without sudo; on others it requires it — the CLI handles both cases.

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Generated by Claude Code

[guhcostan]

Implemented and merged into main via #55. 🎉

Usage:

mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine
# on systems that require elevated privileges:
sudo mac-cleaner-cli maintenance --timemachine

Implementation notes (src/maintenance/timemachine.ts):

• Uses spawn (not exec) — no shell interpolation, safe against injection
• Each snapshot date string is validated against /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{6}$/ before being passed to tmutil
• Tries sudo -n first (non-interactive); if unavailable, prints a clear message with the correct sudo command
• 60-second per-snapshot timeout to handle large snapshots gracefully

Thanks for the great suggestion — 400 GB of local snapshots is definitely a pain point worth solving!

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Generated by Claude Code