Garbage Collector

A cross-platform system cleanup tool built with PyQt6.
Dark terminal aesthetic · live streaming console · smart distro detection.

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File Structure

.
├── main.py              # Entry point — launches the Qt app
├── platform_detect.py   # OS + Linux distro detection (singleton PLATFORM)
├── cleanup_tasks.py     # All cleanup functions + task catalogue builder
├── workers.py           # QThread workers (size calc, cleanup runner)
├── ui_main.py           # Main window, sidebar, live console, stats bar
├── ui_styles.py         # QSS stylesheet (dark industrial theme)
├── build.bat            # Windows PyInstaller build script
├── build.sh             # Linux PyInstaller build script
└── requirements.txt

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Features

UI / UX

• Dark industrial terminal aesthetic (phosphor green + GitHub-blue accents)
• Live streaming console output — lines buffered & flushed at ~25 fps so the UI never freezes
• Colour-coded log lines: green (ok), red (error), blue (task header), amber (info), purple (summary)
• Stats bar: selected count · estimated space · freed bytes · elapsed time
• Debounced async size estimator (doesn't block the UI while scanning)
• Select All / None controls per sidebar
• Cancel button mid-cleanup
• Splitter between sidebar and console

Platform detection

Linux family	Distros detected
Debian	Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, Mint, Elementary, Zorin, Kali, Parrot, MX, Raspbian, Deepin, BackBox, Tails, Sparky, PureOS, LMDE, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and more
Fedora	Fedora, Nobara, RHEL, CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky, Oracle, Scientific, Amazon Linux
Arch	Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda, CachyOS, Artix, ArcoLinux, RebornOS, Archcraft
openSUSE	Leap, Tumbleweed, SLED, SLES
Gentoo	Gentoo, Funtoo, Calculate
Void	Void Linux
Alpine	Alpine Linux
NixOS	NixOS
Solus	Solus

Package managers auto-detected: apt, dnf, yum, pacman, paru, yay, zypper, emerge, xbps, apk, nix, eopkg, snap, flatpak

Dev tools auto-detected: docker, podman, npm, pip, cargo, go, gem, composer, gradle, mvn

Options that require unavailable tools are shown greyed out.

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Windows Options

Group	Options
System	Recycle Bin, User Temp, Windows Temp, Prefetch, Windows.old, Update Cache, Delivery Optimization, Installer Patch Cache, Crash Dumps, Windows Logs, Icon Cache, Event Viewer Logs, DNS Flush, Clipboard, Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr), Font Cache
User & Shell	Downloads, Recent Files, Search History, Jump Lists, Thumbnail Cache, Explorer DB Cache
Microsoft Apps	Office Cache, Teams Cache, MS Store Cache, WER Reports, Visual Studio, VS Code, OneDrive Logs, Skype
Browsers	Edge, Chrome, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Firefox (all profiles)
Developer	npm, pip, NuGet, Gradle, Maven, Cargo, Go modules, Yarn, pnpm, Docker, DirectX Cache
Third-party	Discord, Spotify, Steam, Epic Games, Zoom, Slack, OBS, VLC

Linux Options

Group	Options
System	/tmp, /var/tmp, Trash, DNS Flush, Core Dumps, Swap Cycle, /var/log rotated
Package Managers	(shown only if installed) APT clean/autoclean/autoremove, DNF, YUM, Pacman + orphans, paru, yay, zypper, emerge, xbps, apk, nix, eopkg, snap revisions, flatpak unused
User Cache	~/.cache (all), Thumbnails, Recent Files, .xsession-errors, Bash/Zsh history
Logs	Journal vacuum by time (7d) or size (100M), /var/log rotated
Browsers	Chrome, Chromium, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Edge, Firefox, Epiphany
Developer	pip, npm, Yarn, pnpm, Cargo, Go modules, Gradle, Maven, Gem, Composer, Docker, Podman, VS Code, Python pycache
Third-party	Discord, Spotify, Steam, Zoom, Slack, OBS, VLC, Wine temp, Lutris, Heroic

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Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• PyQt6

pip install -r requirements.txt

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Usage

# Run directly
python main.py

# Windows — UAC elevation is automatic via the `elevate` package
# Linux — run with sudo for system-level tasks (APT, journal, /tmp, etc.)
sudo python main.py

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Build

Windows:

build.bat

Linux:

chmod +x build.sh && ./build.sh

Output: dist/GarbageCollector (or .exe on Windows)

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Notes

• Close apps like Teams, Discord, Spotify, Office before cleaning their caches.
• The Downloads option permanently deletes all files in your Downloads folder — use with care.
• ~/.cache (all) clears your entire user cache; individual apps may take time to regenerate thumbnails, icons, etc.
• Kernel removal on Debian/Ubuntu uses apt autoremove --purge — safe only when you've booted into the kernel you want to keep.

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License

MIT