Free your disk, safely.
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A modern Linux desktop utility that scans your disk and safely reclaims space: temporary files, oversized files, stale git worktrees, developer caches, installed applications and a file-type breakdown — around a 3D usage donut, with a recoverable-by-default deletion model.
Built with Tauri (Rust core + WebView), licensed GPL-3.0-or-later.
- A 3D usage donut (three.js) showing used / reclaimable / free space.
- Scan now launches all cleanup scans + the file-type breakdown at once and fills the donut: a gold layer for reclaimable space and a green layer that grows as you select items, with live figures.
- Results are grouped by category (collapsible); the global "reclaimable" total always equals the sum of the categories and never exceeds the disk.
- Temporary files —
/tmp,/var/tmpand~/.cache, aggregated per cache folder and filtered by age. - Largest files & folders — a read-only explorer of what takes the most space (cache/app folders excluded — they have their own sections).
- Git worktrees — prunable or clean linked worktrees. Never touches a worktree with uncommitted changes.
- Dev caches —
node_modules, Rusttarget/,.next,.turbo,.venv, PHPvendor/and more. - App & browser caches — the regenerable caches the
~/.cachesweep misses: Chromium/Electron caches under~/.config, Flatpak (~/.var/app/*/cache), Snap and npm/yarn/bun caches.
A clickable distribution bar that accounts for the whole disk: images,
videos, audio, archives, disk images / ISO, applications, executables,
documents, caches & dependencies, system and reserved (filesystem).
Click a category to list its largest files with full paths. The system figure is
measured accurately (via du: hardlink-deduplicated, block-accurate,
single-filesystem) so reserved ext4 blocks are shown honestly rather than
inflating "system".
Inventory of installed apps from apt, flatpak, snap and AppImages, ranked by disk space, with available updates surfaced on open and a filter to show only updatable apps. Batch uninstall or batch update the selection; essential system packages are protected (update-only, uninstall blocked). App folders are excluded from the other scans.
Per-disk SMART (health, power-on hours, temperature) via nvme-cli for NVMe
drives (or smartctl for SATA), plus real-time read/write throughput graphs
and system uptime. Missing tools are detected per machine and can be installed in
one click via your package manager (apt / dnf / pacman / zypper).
A built-in crisis process manager: a real-time CPU / RAM / swap graph, a
per-core utilization heatmap, CPU temperature, and a sortable, filterable
process table with terminate / force-kill / restart and a one-click
panic-kill of the biggest non-critical memory hog. A configurable global
hotkey (default Ctrl+Alt+Delete) raises the window onto the task manager; the
app raises its own priority and requests OOM immunity to stay responsive under
memory pressure.
- Light / dark / system theme and French / English / system language.
- Launch at startup (XDG autostart).
- Low-disk-space monitor — a background watcher raises a popup with a clean CTA when free space drops below a configurable threshold.
- Scheduled cleanup — a weekly systemd user timer.
- A persisted, mtime-validated directory-size cache: unchanged trees
(
node_modules, caches) are not re-walked, so rescans are fast. - On launch the app shows the last results instantly from cache, then refreshes in the background and highlights what is new since last time.
The app lives in the tray; its menu opens a popover widget with a disk-usage summary and a quick action. Closing the window keeps it running in the tray.
FreeYourDisk is built around five non-negotiable invariants:
- Read-only scans — scanning never modifies the filesystem (enforced by tests).
- Dry-run first — every deletion shows an exact preview (count, size, destination) and requires explicit confirmation.
- Trash by default — files go to the recoverable XDG trash; permanent deletion is an explicit, per-action opt-in.
- Zone whitelist — deletions are validated against allowed zones; paths outside them and symlinks escaping them are refused.
- Git-safe — git actions never remove uncommitted work.
The UI runs as a normal user with no privileges. When an action needs root
(e.g. /var/tmp, reading NVMe SMART, removing an apt/snap package), a minimal
helper is invoked via Polkit / pkexec — the WebView itself never runs as
root.
| Layer | Choice |
|---|---|
| App shell | Tauri 2 (Rust core + WebView) |
| Backend | Rust workspace (core-scan, core-trash, core-services, core-ipc, privhelper) |
| Frontend | Svelte 5 + TypeScript + Vite 6 |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS v4 (CSS-first @theme, light/dark) |
| Charts | Apache ECharts (graphs) + three.js (3D donut) |
| Privileges | Polkit / pkexec + dedicated helper binary |
sudo apt install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libgtk-3-dev cmake
# Recommended for the Disk health section:
sudo apt install -y nvme-cli smartmontools
# Rust (https://rustup.rs) and Node 22+ / pnpm are also required.
cargo install tauri-clicd ui && pnpm install && cd ..
cargo build --release -p freeyourdisk-helper # the privileged helper (SMART, root deletes)
cargo tauri devcd ui && pnpm build && cd ..
cargo build --release -p freeyourdisk-helper
cargo tauri build # produces deb, rpm and AppImage bundlesThe standalone binary is at target/release/freeyourdisk.
crates/
core-ipc/ shared DTOs (the back/front contract)
core-scan/ read-only scanning + persisted mtime dir-size cache
core-trash/ XDG trash + permanent delete, zone whitelist
core-services/ the cleanup services (temp, app/browser caches, big files,
git worktrees, dev caches)
privhelper/ minimal privileged helper (deletes + SMART, via Polkit)
src-tauri/ Tauri app: commands, file-type & app inventory, health,
low-space monitor, tray, scheduling
ui/ Svelte frontend (home/3D donut, categories, applications,
health, settings)
See CHANGELOG.md.