MacJanitor allows you to manually startup daily, weekly, and monthly cron maintenance scripts. These scripts are important when keeping MacOS X in "good shape". Usually, these scripts are set to automatically launch at times of the day when little activity occurs. However, if your Mac is turned off during these times, then the maintenance scripts don't have a chance to run.
What's new in MacJanitor
Built for Panther and higher (Tiger compatible). Uses the 'periodic' tool instead of running the tasks directly.
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This program is nice, simple, FREE, and very necessary for those of us who leave our computers off or sleeping at night,
If you would like to know how to change the "cron" maintenance schedule to run automatically at a different time and learn a little about using the OS X terminal also, read this tutorial: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/14/terminal_one.html
I share the point of view of the last reviewer, but I've noticed something in Leopard (on an iMac G5):
The routines seem to run, be it with Mac Janitor or Onyx, but if you look at the logs in the console (/var/log/daily.out, monthly.out and weekly.out), they don't seem to be changed after running the scripts. (the daily log was full of things from one year ago that weren't erased when I was running the script)
So I ran them in root user account after having trashed those files from within the Console and I got new clean logs...
I don't know if it's useful or not but that's the way to do it. ;-)
I just wanted to share my experience with this little tool. I have been using it on all my Macs for years and have never had a problem. I currently have a 15" Early 2008 2.5 GHz Intel Core2 Duo MBP w/6GB RAM and a 640GB HDD running Mac OS X 10.6.5 Snow Leopard.
The application isn't as robust as Onyx or TinkerTool or Cocktail, but is faithfully does what it was designed to do. The "Features" area is the only area that I hesitated in giving it a 5. This is because I couldn't decide whether to rate it based on it's design intent or comparatively with TinkerTool and others. If it is compared with other applications that we designed to do more than it's Features rating would be low (probably a "1") as it doesn't do nearly as much as the others. If it is rated based upon what it was designed to do then it would be a "5". I decided to split the difference between the two and rate it a "2.5" for features. I rated it a "5" overall in consideration that it was never designed to do the set of tasks that "Onyx" and others were. To the Developer: I want to thank yo for this little app as it has faithfully done what you designed it to do for years and I (and I believe others are as well) am very grateful to you for creating it. Thank you and may God bless you!!!
This was my #1 utility program on my PPC Mac. Now I have a Intel Mac and unfortunately this app hasn't been compiled as an UB and doesn't work on Intel.
I've given up and now using OnyX which does everything I need to keep my Mac running smoothly.
Found this is the best because it's free and it does the work! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IT!
I'm recommending this to my clients, family, friends, and students because they need to learn that maintenance is just as important as purchasing the right computer . . . Mac Rules!
... this new version runs fine under 10.4.1. does a fine job
however, if you aren't queasy about droping into 'single user' mode, take a look at AppleJack 1.4.1. (it's free)
It does any of 5 maintenance jobs -- some of which no freeware can perform under OS 10.4.x
As a bonus, you can listen to your G5's fans run wild for a minute or so.
Holy fsck Batman…the best of the best is back :-)
I always recommend this UNIX "clearing house" application to folks just for the simple reason it's simple and they can't "screw anything up" by using it (i.e. unlike some other UNIX tools). Don't get me wrong, Onyx is great and I use it but, the average person just needs a little house cleaning it they turn their Mac off when not in use…
Great job…again :-)
I love this app. It makes maintenance easy and doesn't do anything unnecessary like Onyx does. Simple, easy to use and free. Big thanks to the developer.
Running it on 10.3.8. Mac was running slow and I had tried a number of things. MacJanitor cleared the problem right away. Great app! I would gladly pay money for this.
This is a GREAT app; it does what it says, and does it well. I would gladly pay for it... and it's free. My PowerBook was slowing down, and this fixed it!
Why using the terminal when I can do the same with a mouse? MacJanitor is a true Mac application. A stable, nice little tool. I like it. Onyx is another good one.
Sometimes, when I run MacJanitor on my B&W Rev 2 G3 running OS 10.3.2, it reports DONE, but the barber pole keeps spinning and I have to cancel the operation. Anyone else seeing this behavior? Is this a problem?
And a furthe question: should you desist from using your computer while MacJanitor runs? Maybe this is what causes this behavior?
Thanks,
Bob
I went to Mac Store and they wanted me to bring my computer in for repair -warned me against installing Jaguar becasue I was having so many problems.... Someone in apple.com's discussion suggested I use macJanitor and to also repair permissions regularly (found in utlitities: disk utility)
Well, I no longer have problems, I wrote zeros on my drive and installed Jag -happy G4 dual processor and no downtime!
I always find doing things yourself the best. So here are the Prebinding, and UNIX cron commands that can be entered into the Terminal: sudo -S /etc/daily, sudo -S /etc/weekly, sudo -S /ect/monthly, sudo -S update_prebinding root /.
~Mike
Excellent product. I use it regularly. It seems to speed everything up after it is run, and eliminate "quirks" which creep in such as the inability to shut down (the computer simply restarts when shutdown is selected). MacJanitor fixes all !!! Use it regularly!!!
Very useful, but I've always got to re-authorize after running two of the three scripts. Nevermind this, as it save the use of the terminal. You won't need this if you're Mac is running all the time or if you have changed the cron scripts to run at a different time (when your Mac's running).
although i have found the daily and weekly
cleen ups to helpfull if you are running os x 10.2.5 or 6. Be carefull i have found that the full clean up option (all tasks) seems to mess up your machine in some wierd way. every time that it is used i.e the computer goes to sleep and wont wake up.
then after restrating you will incouter a black srceen forcing you to switch off the computor at the power point.
another exaple seams to bethat after running my imac lost all record of mr passwords until the system was resarted wierd??????
although none of the problems are long lasting they are just a pain in the soft derier!!!
Fantastic necessary program to keep things running smooth. I use it on work unit where a jumble of programs run simultaneously including e-mail. And at home on my laptop, neither with any problems or crashes.
This is a great program I found recommended by people on the apple forums. Was easy to use and runs as described. Have since been using another application that does more for me, but it worked fine for a long time with no problems. Highly recommend for running those cron jobs!
This is a great program. It's absolutely necessary for those of us with notebooks or those who don't leave their computers on overnight. I have not had any problem with 10.2.4 and printing. Besides all this program does is force native OS X jobs to run, the program itself does nothing to your system.
This program is nice, simple, FREE, and very necessary for those of us who leave our computers off or sleeping at night,
If you would like to know how to change the "cron" maintenance schedule to run automatically at a different time and learn a little about using the OS X terminal also, read this tutorial: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/14/terminal_one.html
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