Seeking script/action in Mac OSX Safari that will utomatically erase my cache and history files at a certain time each day

March 26, 2004 6:02 AM

Mac OSX Safari --Is there a script/action that I can enable to automatically erase my cache and history files at a certain time each day? While being fairly Mac savvy, I have no experience with writing scripts. I'm really looking for an easy solution, perhaps a piece of freeware?
posted by sharksandwich to computers & internet (6 answers total)

NoName Scriptware has a free program called Cache Out X that I think will do what you want. There website is a little weird, so you might want to look at the MacUpdate listing for the program instead.
posted by bcwinters at 6:51 AM on March 26, 2004

A friend of mine loves this little extension, but it is for Firefox for the Mac.
posted by terrapin at 9:07 AM on March 26, 2004

The Safari cache is in ~/Library/Caches/Safari/. Just add the following line to your crontab:

0 3 * * * rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Safari/*

That means: "At 3:00 AM every day, delete all the files in the Safari cache folder." Change the 3 to some other time if you prefer.

To edit your crontab type crontab -e in a Terminal window, or use the GUI editor CronniX.
posted by kindall at 10:05 AM on March 26, 2004

Similarly, the history file is at ~/Library/Safari/History.plist so the crontab line you want is:
0 3 * * * rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/History.plist

Can anyone recommend a good cron GUI? Every one I've seen (including CronniX) is far from user-friendly.
posted by jjg at 11:19 AM on March 26, 2004

Where in the directory does crontab live? Isn't it enough to be able to edit it with vi or pico? Well, I suppose it would be cool to have nifty buttons rather than a head full of scripting.

As an aside, I remember using the word processor that came with my Apple IIe (WordStar? AppleWrite?)... I had to write it like HTML, I recall, using special character sequences to indicate italics or bold.
posted by squirrel at 12:18 PM on March 26, 2004

Where in the directory does crontab live?

I don't know and I don't care either. That's what crontab -e is for. It'll open it up in your preferred editor wherever it may be.
posted by kindall at 2:32 PM on March 26, 2004