Clean old Time Machine backups with ease! You know, when you have backups from several machines on a single drive and not a single one wants to backup anymore...
Simply install from RubyGems:
$ gem install tmcleanSee the usage by just type tmclean:
$ tmclean ruby-1.9.3-p194 1↵
Usage: tmclean last <number>
tmclean keep <number>
tmclean until <date description>TMClean requires root privileges to delete the Time Machine backups. If you use RVM,
then you simply can use rvmsudo, otherwise use sudo su -.
You can say how many backups you want to remove from Time Machine:
$ rvmsudo tmclean last 2
Getting the list of backups. Hold on a moment...
Keep 53 recent backups.
Delete the following backups:
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-16-004025
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-23-002310
Are you sure to delete these backups? (Y/N)
Deleting backups. You may want to grab some coffee, it takes ages...
Delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-16-004025
Delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-23-002310
Done.You can say how many backups you want to keep, the rest is removed from Time Machine:
$ rvmsudo tmclean keep 50
Getting the list of backups. Hold on a moment...
Keep 50 recent backups.
Delete the following backups:
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-30-000535
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-07-174853
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-15-001309
Are you sure to delete these backups? (Y/N)
Deleting backups. You may want to grab some coffee, it takes ages...
Delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2011-12-30-000535
Delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-07-174853
Delete /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-15-001309
Done.You can say which date the backups should be removed from Time Machine:
$ rvmsudo tmclean until 3 months ago
Getting the list of backups. Hold on a moment...
Keep 36 recent backups.
Delete the following backups:
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-22-200324
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-01-29-204948
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-02-11-202151
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-02-18-200728
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-02-25-201024
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-03-03-200513
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-03-10-200939
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-03-17-200645
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-03-24-200450
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-03-31-200929
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-04-07-200722
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-04-18-201209
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-04-25-201422
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/otherland/2012-05-08-201136
Are you sure to delete these backups? (Y/N)
Cancelled.Developed by Michael Kessler, sponsored by mksoft.ch.
If you like TMClean, you can watch the repository at GitHub and follow @netzpirat on Twitter for project updates.
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2012 Michael Kessler
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.