How to fully uninstall apps in macOS just using bash

I always wished for Mac OS or Unix in general to have a way to ‘stamp’ files with the application bundle id that created the file. Something in extended attributes, just like the quarantine tag that records where a download came from.

Does anyone have any idea on how you could make a wrapper that would be able to do this? If that’s possible, the next step would be to figure out how to have launchd use the wrapper. Or even better, swap out the Application.app with the wrapper and make the actual application hidden like .Application.app, or inside the wrapper, or …?

The wrapper would stamp itself and the original with the bundle id so when you do a find on the xattr of the bundle you get a definitive list of every last trace of everything on the filesystem related to the application.

Perhaps the wrapper would have a special case of documents created and saved in normal user home directories, so e.g. your ~/Documents/todo.txt created in MacVim doesn’t get the macvim tag

The reason for all this?

Some commercial software offers a trial and some licensing systems out there spew obfuscated files in weird places, that aren’t easily identified as belonging to the app or the licensing framework.

It might be worth noting that bash is a specific thing - that is, it refers to a specific shell. zsh is not bash, and there is nothing bash specific in the slightest in this article.

How about, instead of saying ..."just using bash", you wrote, ..."just using shell"?

I've been using AppCleaner to do this for years. It's free and works well.

https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

> mdfind -name $1 | vipe | xargs -L 1 -I {} rm -rf {}

How safe is this in the face of errors. Can you end up with a situation where you end up running a naked ‘rm -rf’ ?

This is bad form. First of all, we have a homebrew plug. homebrew makes a mess and...

Homebrew does not honor the default privileges of /usr/local; directory ownership is changed from root with group permissions for the wheel group to the installing user and the "admin" group. Specifically, the mode changes from drwxr-xr-x root wheel to drwxrwxr-x myuser admin. All files, not just the directories, have their ownership changed by the installer. This is considered by some as a major security flaw.[1]

MacPorts is superior and it is what the pros use. Now enough of that.

OP's method pays absolutely no attention to the BoM Receipts that every application installed with an installer will honor. This method doesn't consult the BoM, and obviously leaves stuff lying around.

BoMs are found in /var/db/receipts for all App Store installations and updates, and all other installations performed by the Installer app. macOS system, security, and security data updates have their BoMs stored in /System/Library/Receipts

Below somewhere is a superior uninstaller script I picked up at some point. First install the appropriate version of Xcode for your macOS version. Then install MacPorts package manager thusly:

     curl -O https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.7.2.tar.bz2

     tar xjvf MacPorts-2.7.2.tar.bz2
 
     cd MacPorts-2.7.2/

     ./configure
     make
     sudo make install #not war!
     cd ..
     sudo rm -rf Macports-*
     sudo /opt/local/bin/port -vs selfupdate

Add this line to your ~/.bash_profile

     export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/share/man:/usr/X11/bin

Then drop below in a file in your ~/bin (or /usr/local/bin if you want all users to have access), maybe call it "uninstaller," and

     chmod +x uninstaller

--------------------------

     #!/bin/bash

     #uninstall application installed with installer -pkg
     #using (user) provided bom receipt
     #place all installed files and directories in user's Trash

     lsbom="/usr/bin/lsbom"
     cd="/usr/bin/cd"
     sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"
     xargs="/usr/bin/xargs"
     rmtrash="/opt/local/bin/rmtrash"

     lsbom -fls "$1" | (cd /; sudo xargs rmtrash -u $USER)
     exit

--------------------------

make sure to install rmtrash before using

     sudo port -vsN install rmtrash

To make this clearer, user must find the BoM receipt and the path to the BoM for whatever application for the input for this script. Again find BoMs in /var/db/receipts or /System/Library/Receipts

So, for e.g., say you've installed an application called Test.app. First find the $PATH to the correct BoM then call its path with the script.

     uninstaller /var/db/receipts/com.somedeveloper.test.bom

after entering password, this execution will uninstall everything that installer installed for Test.app because all those files are listed in the BoM, and it will move all files the Test.app installer installed into your Trash.

I think it is just nuts to use /bin/rm in a script like this, so rmtrash is a little cli utility that moves things into your Trash, rather than deleting immediately. Much safer. Also, my script does not rely on Spotlight (mdfind). No telling what mdfind will return. Use the Bill of Materials receipts to uninstall, not Spotlight. That's crazy talk.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_(package_manager)#Imp...

just use pkgutil