aam044 / Time-Machine-Cleanup

ZSH scripts to clean up Time Machine backups and reduce its size

Time Machine Cleanup

ZSH scripts to clean up Time Machine backups and reduce its size.

tm-cleanup.sh

tm-cleanup.sh is a ZSH script that lists the completed Time Machine snapshots and deletes those that satisfy the specified criteria. Two types of deletion criteria exist:

• By date: snapshots that are older than a specified number of days are deleted. The default threshold is 30 days.

• By number: a maximum number of snapshots is retained and oldest snapshots are deleted.

Only one deletion criteria can be specified.

The syntax of tm-cleanup.sh is the following:

$ tm-cleanup.sh (-d days | -n number) [-f] [-x]
$ tm-cleanup.sh [-h]

where

• If -d is specified, backups older than the specified number of days will be deleted. days is a positive integer number.
• -n specifies the number of backups to retain. number is a positive integer number.
• By default, tm-cleanup.sh exits and prints an error message if a Time Machine backup is currently in progress. -f forces the backup deletion concurrently.
• -h prints the help message and exits the program.
• -x performs a dry clean: it will print the list of operations that will be performed without actually performing any.

This script never deletes the latest snapshot, no matter the value of the -d or -n options.

Installation

The scripts require no installation: they can be downloaded and run from any location. However, this repository provides an installation script that creates symbolic links to /usr/local/bin, a directory which is included by default in the ${PATH} of any OS X user. Installing the symbolic links has the advantage of always providing the current version of the scripts on the ${PATH} when the local repository is updated.

To install the symbolic links:

$ sudo make install

To uninstall the symbolic links:

$ sudo make uninstall

To make the changes visibile in an existing ZSH session, execute this command:

$ rehash

Requirements

Since a compatible version of ZSH is bundled with OS X, these scripts have no other requirements.

Bug Reports

Bug reports can be sent directly to the authors.

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Copyright (C) 2016 Enrico M. Crisostomo

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.