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Maintenance



Maintenance Pilot:

Periodic System Tasks
There are 3 Mac OS X internal maintain scripts (also called cron-scripts) which help to keep your system clean and fast, and get rid of old log and junk files. These scripts would run anyway if your computer would be running at night. It is recommended to run "All" maintain script at least once a month.
Daily script:






 Removes scratch and junk files
Backups NetInfo data
Removes system messages older than 21 days
Checks subsystem status
Rotates system log files
Cleans web sever log files
Weekly script:



 Rebuilds locate database
Rebuilds whatis database
Rotates log files (ftp, lookudp, lpr, mail, netinfo, http, ipfw, ...)
Monthly script:


 Does login accounting
Rotates log files (wtmp, install.log)
Repair Permissions:
Repairing disk permissions may solve several problems and increases system performance and security. It is recommended to repair permissions preventively once per month.
Some known problems that may be solved:
• Problems with accessing certain files or folders (Home, Public folder, ...)
• Problem with long launch times (System, Applications, ...)
• Problems at login
• Problems with file sharing
Repairing disk permissions can only be executed on system volumes!

System Optimization:
There are 2 different ways of handling executable and shared libraries prebindings using Xupport. Up-to-date prebindings increase system performance and ensures short application launch times.
1. Repeat:



 Ensures that all binding information are re-bound, even if the prebinding is otherwise up-to-date. It renews prebinding information of all binaries on the root volume.
2. Update:

 Ensures that binding information are up-to-date after new applications or new versions of system libraries are installed.





Clean Up:

Clean Log Archives
Find and remove archived log files. Log file archives get created e.g. when running "Periodic System Tasks" or when restarting the computer. There are 3 main log directories: ~/Library/Logs (private logs), /Library/Logs (system wide logs), /var/logs (system wide unix logs). The "Clean active log files" option also rotates active log files, and therefore a restart is required.

Clean Browser Caches
Clean caches, cookies, histories, web icons and download lists of the respective browser. For security reason the browsers should be quit when applying.

Clean Application Caches
Clean the caches of natively installed Apple applications. Sometimes old application caches decrease application performance, or even cause application errors (especially on upgraded systems). Beside that old (and often unused) application caches use a lot of disk space. The respective caches get rebuilt when launching the application the next time, and therefore the first launch will take a little longer. While cleaning, the applications must be quit.





Reset:

Reset File Type Settings
Resets the default file type settings by removing launch service caches and .plist files. This is quite similar to the "Rebuild Desktop" feature in Mac OS 9. It is useful to solve various file type and application launch problems. This feature requires restarting the computer.

Reset Finder Info
The Finder stores folder settings in hidden files called ".DS_Store". By removing them, comments, window settings, folder icons and modification dates, and icon positions will be reset. Choose a folder or volume to be reset. All subdirectories of the chosen path will also get reset.





Trash:

Force empty Trash
Delete all Trash folders with administrator privileges on a chosen volume. Use this if there are undeletable files in the trash, that can't be deleted using the Finder's "Empty Trash" function.
The "Shredder" option will overwrite regular files before deleting their directory entry, and therefore the files get unrecoverable (also for common un-erase and recover software).

File-Trash
Delete files and folders with administrator privileges. There are 3 ways to add files and folders to the deletion list:
1. Drag the item from the Finder to the delete list.
2. Use the "Add..." button to use standard navigation services to browse the file system.
3. Use the "Browser..." button to open the Xupport native browser window.
The added items won't get moved to a trash folder (or modified in any way), unless you press the "Delete" button.
Browse...
 Add files and folders using the Xupport browser window.
Add...
 Add files and folders using standard navigation services.
Remove
 Removes the selected item(s) from the list.
Clear
 Removes all items from the list.
Shredder

 Files will get overwritten before deleting their directory entry, and therefore the files get unrecoverable (also for common un-erase and recover software).
Delete
 Starts the deletion process. You can't abort the deletion process!
The deletion is irreversible! You won't be able to undo the deletion.