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Mac Maintenance

EricNau

EricNau

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Apr 27, 2005
10,736
294
San Francisco, CA
OK,
I'm still relatively new to Mac, and I had a question for those of you who know more than me.
On a Windows, you have to perform maintenance tasks, such as de-fragmenting the HDD, etc.
Are there any maintenance type things I should be doing on my Mac, and how do I do them?
Thanks
 
Make sure you mac is on at night once and a while. Scripts get run at night. There is a daily, weekly, and monthly script. If you don't leave your computer on, either (1) get a program called anacron that will run the scripts when possible, or (2) change the time of the script. Also, repair permissions once and a while.

Other will tell you of many other programs they run. Most of those programs just run the daily, weekly, and monthly scripts. I say just stick to the basics.
 
grapes911 said:
Make sure you mac is on at night once and a while. Scripts get run at night. There is a daily, weekly, and monthly script. If you don't leave your computer on, either (1) get a program called anacron that will run the scripts when possible, or (2) change the time of the script. Also, repair permissions once and a while.

Other will tell you of many other programs they run. Most of those programs just run the daily, weekly, and monthly scripts. I say just stick to the basics.
Click to expand...

If you're running the newest version of OS X, there's no need to do this anymore. The scripts will run whenever you either start your computer or wake it up. No need to keep it on all night like you used to.

See the following:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/156767/
 
CalGrunt said:
If you're running the newest version of OS X, there's no need to do this anymore. The scripts will run whenever you either start your computer or wake it up. No need to keep it on all night like you used to.

See the following:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/156767/
Click to expand...
So the ONLY thing I need to do is repair disk permissions once in a while...seems too easy.
 
CalGrunt said:
If you're running the newest version of OS X, there's no need to do this anymore. The scripts will run whenever you either start your computer or wake it up. No need to keep it on all night like you used to.

See the following:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/156767/
Click to expand...

I'm going to test this out. I'll make a launchd command for a soon to be time and then I'll put my computer to sleep. I'll be right back.
 
grapes911 said:
I'm going to test this out. I'll make a launchd command for a soon to be time and then I'll put my computer to sleep. I'll be right back.
Click to expand...

Grapes, ya gotta be running 10.4.1. If you're running 10.4.0, it ain't gonna work.
 
CalGrunt said:
Grapes, ya gotta be running 10.4.1. If you're running 10.4.0, it ain't gonna work.
Click to expand...
I have 10.4.2. I disabled anancron and it seems to run when a launchd command, but not when in cron. So anacron is still necessary, just not for daily, weekly, monthly, or any other lanuchd command.
 
grapes911 said:
I have 10.4.2. I disabled anancron and it seems to run when a launchd command, but not when in cron. So anacron is still necessary, just not for daily, weekly, monthly, or any other lanuchd command.
Click to expand...

So why is anacron still necessary ??
 
grapes911 said:
To run my cron jobs that were missed due to sleep or the computer being off.
Click to expand...

Are your cron jobs necessary for general computer maintenance ??
 
CalGrunt said:
Are your cron jobs necessary for general computer maintenance ??
Click to expand...
You ask a lot of questions. :p

What's you definition of "general computer maintenance"? My cron jobs run software update, make backups of important folders and files, clean out certain folders, etc.
 
grapes911 said:
You ask a lot of questions. :p

What's you definition of "general computer maintenance"? My cron jobs run software update, make backups of important folders and files, clean out certain folders, etc.
Click to expand...

Sorry............I'm pretty new to all this myself. I'm still running a G3 on OS 8.6. Got a new iMac comin' in a few days, so I had the same questions as the OP.

I'm totally unfamiliar with cron scripts and such.........but the way I understand it is, the cron scripts that run general system maintenace no longer have to be run in the middle of the night that used to require your computer to be left on, right?
 
CalGrunt said:
Sorry............I'm pretty new to all this myself. I'm still running a G3 on OS 8.6. Got a new iMac comin' in a few days, so I had the same questions as the OP.
Click to expand...
Understandable. I like learning new things too.

I'm totally unfamiliar with cron scripts and such....
Click to expand...
Cron jobs can be anything. If you can do it via terminal (which is almost anything), you can set is as a cron job. Cron has been around in the Unix world for a long time. My guess is that it first got started for maintenance. But all it really is, is a program that runs a terminal command at a certain time. Users have found all sorts of useful jobs for cron.

.....but the way I understand it is, the cron scripts that run general system maintenace no longer have to be run in the middle of the night that used to require your computer to be left on, right?
Click to expand...
Cron scripts no longer run daily, weekly, and monthly. Apple developed lanuchd which is similar to cron, but not exactly the same. Launchd is much more powerful. It seems that launchd runs its missed jobs when it wakes (I'm going to test it some more though).

Cron still does exist though. There are no default cron jobs created by Apple. That does not mean that a user cannot add cron jobs to do whatever he or she wants.
 
One more question:rolleyes:

When launchd runs these scripts, does it totally do them in the background or does it give you some indication that it is running?
 
CalGrunt said:
One more question:rolleyes:

When launchd runs these scripts, does it totally do them in the background or does it give you some indication that it is running?
Click to expand...
The only way that I know if a job ran is by looking at the logs. Console.app is the easiest way to do it unless you want to use the terminal.
 
grapes911 said:
The only way that I know if a job ran is by looking at the logs. Console.app is the easiest way to do it unless you want to use the terminal.
Click to expand...
What would one look for in this console.app?
 
EricNau said:
What would one look for in this console.app?
Click to expand...
I'm not on my Mac right now, but I think it is in the Utilities folder.

Edit: read your post wrong. On the left look for a job such as daily. Then look through the log for time stamps.
 
grapes911 said:
I'm not on my Mac right now, but I think it is in the Utilities folder.

Edit: read your post wrong. On the left look for a job such as daily. Then look through the log for time stamps.
Click to expand...
Thanks - How long do the logs stay there? Is it a time limit thing, or when I shut down my computer, or what?
 
EricNau said:
How long do the logs stay there?
Click to expand...

Basically forever. Part of the purpose of the daily/weekly/monthly scripts is to archive these logs, compressing them so you save space (you'll see some log files ending in .gz). I don't think the scripts ever erase the logs, however. You can do that yourself by getting rid of what you no longer want in ~/Library/Logs/ or /Library/Logs/.
 
A program called Onyx will optimize the system and clear any unnecessary files that remain in your mac. Once I launched the program every month, it will free up about 100-200MB unnecessary files.
 
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