tm-dev-exclude

Find rebuildable development directories and exclude them from Time Machine. The command is a dry run unless you pass --apply.

Requires macOS and Node.js 18.17 or later. There are no runtime dependencies.

Usage

npm start                                  # scan your home directory
npm start -- ~/Projects                    # scan one directory
npm start -- ~/Projects --apply            # add exclusions
npm start -- --revert --apply              # remove matched exclusions
npm start -- --min-size 100MB --apply      # ignore smaller candidates
npm start -- --skip cargo-target --apply   # disable a rule

Run npm start -- --help for all options and npm start -- --list-rules for the complete rule set.

Browser interface

npm run ui

The interface lets you select individual directories before adding or removing exclusions. It listens on 127.0.0.1.

Install the command

To make tm-dev-exclude available outside the repository:

npm link
tm-dev-exclude --help

After linking, tm-dev-exclude [options] is equivalent to npm start -- [options].

Matching

Rules cover dependency directories, build output, virtual environments, and tool caches. Generic names need a matching project marker. For example, target requires Cargo.toml or pom.xml.

The scanner does not follow symlinks, cross filesystem volumes, enter macOS app packages, or descend into version control metadata.

Exclusion modes

By default, the command writes Time Machine's exclusion extended attribute to each directory. This does not require administrator privileges. If a build tool recreates the directory, run the command again.

Sticky exclusions survive directory recreation:

sudo npm start -- --sticky --apply
sudo npm start -- --sticky --revert --apply

Sticky exclusions are path-based and require administrator privileges.

Configuration

Configuration is read from ~/.config/tm-dev-exclude/config.json or ~/.tm-dev-exclude.json.

{
  "roots": ["~/Projects"],
  "ignore": ["~/Projects/archive"],
  "skip": ["cargo-target"],
  "minSize": "50MB"
}

Machine-specific paths can use TM_DEV_EXCLUDE_ROOTS and TM_DEV_EXCLUDE_IGNORE. Both accept colon-separated paths:

export TM_DEV_EXCLUDE_ROOTS="$HOME/Projects:$HOME/work"
export TM_DEV_EXCLUDE_IGNORE="$HOME/work/do-not-touch:$HOME/stuff/don-not-touch"

Development

npm test