Be lazy! Let Maid clean up after you, based on rules you define.
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Maid keeps files from sitting around too long, untouched. Many of the downloads and temporary files you collect can
easily be categorized and handled appropriately by rules you define. Let the maid in your computer take care of the
easy stuff, so you can spend more of your time on what matters.
Think of it like the email filters you might already have, but for files. Worried about things happening that you don't expect? Maid doesn't overwrite files and actions are logged so you can tell what happened.
Maid is inspired by the Mac OS X shareware program Hazel. Think of Maid as "Hazel for hackers".
Your rules are defined in Ruby, so simple rules are easy and difficult rules are possible. This also makes Maid a great general-purpose advanced file renaming tool.
This project wouldn't be where it is today without its users and contributors. Thank you! See AUTHORS and the contributors graph for more info.
[ Flattr this git repo ](https://flattr.com/submit/auto?user_id=benjaminoakes&url=https://github.com/benjaminoakes/maid&title=maid&language=en_GB&tags=github&category=software)
- Participate in beta testing
- Report an issue (bug or feature request)
- Read through the wiki
- Even just share a link to Maid :)
- Address a
TODOorFIXMEin the code. - Complete an issue (easy ones are labelled, and issues for future releases are grouped by milestone).
- Working on an issue? Please leave a comment so others know.
- See the Contributing guide
Hazel for hackers - December 16th, 2012 (peaked at #2)
Podcast #302 (at 2:45) - August 31st, 2012
Maid - August 29th, 2012
- OS: Mac OS X, Ubuntu
- Ruby: 1.8.7, 1.9.3 (preferred)
Some features require OS X. See the documentation for more details. Other Ruby versions and Linux distributions may work, but are not officially supported. (Contributions are welcome, however.)
First, you need Ruby:
- Mac OS X: Ruby 1.8.7 comes preinstalled.
- Ubuntu: Ruby is not preinstalled. To install Ruby 1.9.3:
sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1 # (sic)(Interested in a package?)
Then, you can install via RubyGems. Open a terminal and run:
sudo gem install maid
At a later date, you can update by running:
sudo gem update maid
If you decide you don't want Maid installed anymore, remove it:
sudo gem uninstall maid
NOTE: This does not remove any files under ~/.maid or crontab entries. Please remove them at your convenience.
- Having multiple Ruby versions installed can confuse things. If you're a Ruby developer, you may prefer to just
gem install maidwith your preferred setup. Ruby 1.9.3 is recommended. - Older packages of Ruby for Ubuntu may not automatically add the RubyGems
bindirectory to your$PATH. Double check your settings.
In a nutshell, Maid uses "rules" to define how files are handled. Once you have rules defined, you can either test what
cleaning would do (maid clean -n) or actually clean (maid clean).
To generate a sample rules file, run:
maid sampleMaid rules are defined using Ruby, with some common operations made easier with a small DSL (Domain Specific Language).
For example, this is a rule:
Maid.rules do
rule 'Old files downloaded while developing/testing' do
dir('~/Downloads/*').each do |path|
if downloaded_from(path).any? {|u| u.match 'http://localhost'} && 1.week.since?(last_accessed(path))
trash(path)
end
end
end
endIf you're new to Ruby and would prefer a more traditional for loop, you can also do this:
Maid.rules do
rule 'My rule' do
for path in dir('~/Downloads/*')
# ...
end
end
endBefore you start running your rules, you'll likely want to be able to test them. Here's how:
# No actions are taken; you just see what would happen with your rules as defined.
maid clean --dry-run # Synonyms: -n, --noopTo run your rules on demand, you can run maid manually:
maid clean # Run the rules at ~/.maid/rules.rb, logging to ~/.maid/maid.log
maid clean -r some_rules.rb # Run the rules in the file 'some_rules.rb', logging to ~/.maid/maid.logSo, for example, if this is some_rules.rb:
Maid.rules do
rule 'downloaded PDF books' do
move(dir('~/Downloads/*.pdf'), '~/Books')
end
endThen, this is the command to test, as well as some sample output:
$ maid clean -nr some_rules.rb
Rule: downloaded PDF books
mv "/Users/ben/Downloads/book.pdf" "/Users/ben/Books/"
mv "/Users/ben/Downloads/issue12.pdf" "/Users/ben/Books/"
mv "/Users/ben/Downloads/spring2011newsletter.pdf" "/Users/ben/Books/"
For help with command line usage, run maid help. For more help, please see the links at the top of this README.
Once you get a hang for what you can do with Maid, let it do its stuff automatically throughout the day. You'll find your computer stays a little tidier with as you teach it how to handle your common files.
Note: Both Mac OS X and Ubuntu support callbacks when folders are changed (fsevent/inotify), and that may be a forthcoming feature in Maid.
That said, I find cron to take care of most of my needs. Pull requests are welcome, however. :)
To do this, edit your crontab in your tool of choice:
crontab -e
...and have it invoke the maid clean command. The --silent option is provided to keep this from emailing you, if
desired. A log of the actions taken is kept at ~/.maid/maid.log.
Example for every day at 1am:
# minute hour day_of_month month day_of_week command_to_execute
0 1 * * * /bin/bash -li -c "maid clean --silent"
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
GPLv2. See LICENSE for a copy.