[Bouba]

Wow, I'm really amazed!!

I installed version 1.0b1 of skin-a-dock... it was so buggy that it rendered all applications that have an icon that dynamically change in the dock to crash or to behave strangely.

Version 1.0b2 solved the issue, but everything now is faster!
It seems like it affected the files in /library/caches and ~/library/caches

You could try trashing some of these files... however you could have icons that display with white icons...

But it's SNAPPIER!!!

[Mark Tungston]

results may vary

so i think i'll pass lest my sustem goes down the drain

[Bouba]

It just seems like the folders want to open instead of hanging for a couple of msec before opening... I can now see the scaling effect on my G3.

Of course, I have a g3 266, so little details like that influence a lot the behavior of the system, it's not like a dual-ghz that will still be able to breathe even though you are doing x amount of work...

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Bouba:
Wow, I'm really amazed!!

I installed version 1.0b1 of skin-a-dock... it was so buggy that it rendered all applications that have an icon that dynamically change in the dock to crash or to behave strangely.

Version 1.0b2 solved the issue, but everything now is faster!
It seems like it affected the files in /library/caches and ~/library/caches

You could try trashing some of these files... however you could have icons that display with white icons...

But it's SNAPPIER!!!

Bouba

I trashed all my files in /library/caches and ~/library/caches along with everything in /system/library/cashes and also found things a good deal snappier.

Had no probs with icons or anything else, other than the dreaded Photoshop 7 crashing that is...

Simon

[Bouba]

I think it means that the cache folder gets constipated with time...

Somebody could write an app with applescript studio to deblock it!!!
We could call this app Mac OS X-Lax!!!

I'll try to see what I can do about it myself!

[simonmartin]

Originally posted by Bouba:
I think it means that the cache folder gets constipated with time...

Somebody could write an app with applescript studio to deblock it!!!
We could call this app Mac OS X-Lax!!!

I'll try to see what I can do about it myself!

Bouba,

I actually found one. it's called Jaguar Cache Cleaner by Northern Softworks

I don't have the link for it but I'm sure Google will find it for you, an English outfit.

Never tried it though...

Simon

[eddiecatflap]

http://www.northernsoftworks.com/

[diamondsw]

While in theory deleting caches shouldn't harm anything, you will notice that most of your file extension associations just went down the drain. Not the ones you override yourself - those are stored in you preferences - but the ones that get set up when you first install an app. For instance, after doing this your ".doc" files won't open in Word anymore. When you launch a program for the first time afterwards OS X recreates the associations.

However, aside from that bug, killing your caches is a good maintenance thing. Apart from speed issues, things can get corrupted in the caches pretty easily. I've seen programs stop launching, file associations vanish, drag and drop die (that one was strange!), the system preferences panel go screwy, and desktop pictures not work. All fixed by deleting the cache files.

If you want life to be all good, every couple weeks boot to single user mode, and after mounting disks do this:

<<command removed>>

That will kill all of the caches and then immediately reboot (trust me - you don't want to continue after killing the caches without a reboot). Also, trying to delete this from the GUI doesn't work well, because when you logout, many of them will be written again with the same bad info. So do it from the straight command-line to be safe.

And then run Disk Utility's "Fix permissions" - when the OS recreates them, I believe all of them are owned by root.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by diamondsw:
<<command removed>>

I would not recommend doing this as it's very dangerous.

Instead, I would do it this way:

cd /Library
rm -r Caches
cd ~/Library
rm -r Caches
cd /var/root/Library
sudo rm -r Caches
cd /System/Library/
sudo rm -r Caches
sudo reboot

It's more lines to type, but you have a much smaller chance of accidentally hitting the Return key too early or putting a misplaced space in there and wiping out your entire Library folder, your entire user folder, or your entire hard disk.

Besides, you can just write a shell script that does this. Then, you can still execute it with just one command line.

Charles

[Millennium]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
I would not recommend doing this as it's very dangerous.

As a matter of fact, do not run that line of code at all. There's a typo which will wipe out all user directories, if you run the command as root.

I'm going to remove it from the threads, actually. I don't know if it was an innocent typo or a malicious joke, but CharlesS' method works better anyway.

[AU_student_iceBook]

Originally posted by CharlesS:

Instead, I would do it this way:

cd /Library
rm -r Caches
cd ~/Library
rm -r Caches
cd /var/root/Library
rm -r Caches
cd /System/Library/
rm -r Caches
reboot

Thanks Charles, I logged in as root and did this. How would I make a shell script?
Thanks.

[yukon]

wow, i've noticed it too. After turning off the zoomrects in the finder, it's like it waits until they would have finished to open the folder. seems to have cleared that up. I have deleted the caches before, but never seen that speed up.

Oh, skinadock is a really awesome app. Impressve. But it often makes the icon's so very small, and it can lower productivity. cool visuals though, I can't wait for newer "themes"

[Shuh]

A quicker way to do it with far less typing:

[localhost:~] edward% rm -r {,~,/var/root,/System}/Library/Caches

[a-poria]

following charles' method, would it be better to do this logged in as root user or under single user mode? is there a difference?

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Shuh:
A quicker way to do it with far less typing:

[localhost:~] edward% rm -r {,~,/var/root,/System}/Library/Caches

This has a similar problem to the original command - it has slashes in the rm command. You never want to do that - a typo could cause you to accidentally hose your entire home directory, or /var/root, or /System, or any of the above.

Just cd into the directory you want, and type rm -r with only the name of the folder you want to delete. Never have any slashes (/) in an rm command or you risk causing serious damage to your system.

Yeah, it's more typing to do it my way, but you get a peace of mind you don't get this way.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by a-poria:
following charles' method, would it be better to do this logged in as root user or under single user mode? is there a difference?

Neither. You can either use sudo -s before running the commands, or you can prefix the two commands that require root access (deleting the caches in /System/Library and in /var/root, and rebooting) with sudo. The latter is the best, and I think I will update my instructions to reflect that.