Remove .DS_Store Files Quickly

.DS_Store files are hidden files created by macOS to store custom attributes of a folder, such as the position of icons or the background color. While these files are hidden by default, they can clutter up your directories when working with version control systems like Git, and I got annoyed by them. Here's how you can remove .DS_Store files quickly using the terminal on macOS.

A smiple command that removes all .DS_Store files in the current directory and its subdirectories is:

find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

This command uses the find utility to locate all files named .DS_Store in the current directory (.) and its subdirectories. The -type f flag specifies that we are looking for files, and the -delete flag removes the files that match the search criteria.

You can add a VSCode task to run this command with a keyboard shortcut, it will save you a lot of time and frustration:

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "label": "Remove .DS_Store Files",
      "type": "shell",
      "command": "find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete",
      "group": {
        "kind": "build",
        "isDefault": true
      },
      "problemMatcher": []
    }
  ]
}

Now you can run this task with a keyboard shortcut in VSCode to remove all .DS_Store files quickly and easily.

Happy giting! 🚀