macOS disk cleanup commands#
Collection of commands to check and free disk space on macOS.
Docker#
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
docker system df |
Show disk usage overview (images, containers, volumes, build cache) |
docker system prune -a --volumes |
Remove all unused containers, images, build cache, and volumes |
Homebrew#
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
brew cleanup --dry-run |
Preview what can be removed (old versions, stale downloads) |
brew cleanup -s |
Clean old versions and stale downloads (“scrub”) |
System#
Find the biggest space consumers in the home directory:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
du -sh ~/Library/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -n 10 |
Top 10 largest items in ~/Library |
du -sh ~/* ~/.* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -n 15 |
Top 15 largest items in home (including hidden) |
du -sh ~/Library/Caches |
Total size of the caches folder |
du -sh ~/Library/"Application Support"/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -n 10 |
Top 10 largest apps in Application Support |
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -n 10 |
Top 10 largest caches |
ls -lhS ~/Downloads | head -n 10 |
Largest files in Downloads |
du -shdisplays a human-readable (-h) total (-s) per path.
Good practices#
- Preview before cleaning:
--dry-run,-n, or a plainduscan first. - Caches are safe to delete in most cases — applications regenerate them.