clean Command

Remove junk files, empty directories, and temporary files from a directory.

Basic Usage 

# Clean directory recursively (default)
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads

# Non-recursive
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --no-recursive

What Gets Cleaned

Apple temp files:

  • .DS_Store
  • ._* (AppleDouble shadow files)
  • .Spotlight-V100
  • .Trashes
  • .fseventsd

Windows temp files:

  • Thumbs.db
  • desktop.ini
  • $RECYCLE.BIN

Editor backup files:

  • *~ (Vim/Emacs)
  • .swp (Vim swap)
  • .swo (Vim swap)

Empty directories: (removed bottom-up)

Options

--dry-run

Preview what would be deleted:

# Always do this first!
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --dry-run

--nfo

Also delete .nfo files (video metadata):

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --nfo

--no-empty-dirs

Skip empty directory cleanup:

# Only clean junk files, leave empty dirs
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --no-empty-dirs

--log PATH

Save cleanup log to JSON file:

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --log cleanup.json

# View what was deleted
cat cleanup.json

--json

Output as JSON:

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --json

-v, --verbose

Show detailed output:

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads -v

Examples

Preview Before Cleaning 

# Always preview first!
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --dry-run

# Review what would be deleted

Clean Downloads Folder 

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads

# Removes .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, and empty directories

Clean Recursively with Log 

uv run para-files clean ~/Documents --log cleanup.json

# See what was cleaned
cat cleanup.json

Clean Without Touching Empty Directories 

uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --no-empty-dirs

# Removes junk files only

Include .nfo Files 

uv run para-files clean ~/Videos --nfo

# Removes .nfo sidecar files (video metadata)

Safe Workflow 

# 1. Always preview first
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --dry-run

# 2. Review output carefully

# 3. If satisfied, clean with a log
uv run para-files clean ~/Downloads --log cleanup.json

# 4. Check the log
cat cleanup.json

Troubleshooting

“Permission denied”? You may not have write permission in that directory.

“Nothing was cleaned”? The directory is already clean or doesn’t contain junk files.

Want to restore deleted files? Check your trash/recycle bin. clean permanently deletes.