I installed Orbstack and found that I didn't really need it, so I removed the directory in /Applications. Wow, for weeks and weeks I found remnants of it in a lot of places. Very disappointing that it left so much cruft around. They should have an uninstaller. It left a really bad taste and I'm unlikely to try it again.
Before someone asks. I've been using macOS for a long time. I've never seen remnants like this from a program. Sure, there are often directories left in ~/Library/Application Support/, but this was more than that. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the details, but I ran across the bits in at least 3-4 places.
Dev here — I've been meaning to update the Homebrew cask to be more complete on zap, but there's a good reason that all of these are needed:
- ~/.orbstack
- Docker context that points to OrbStack (for CLI)
- "source ~/.orbstack/shell/init.zsh" in .zprofile/bash_profile (to add CLI tools to PATH)
- ~/.ssh/config (for convenient SSH to OrbStack's Linux machines)
- Symlinks to CLI tools in ~/.local/bin, ~/bin, or /usr/local/bin depending on what's available (to add CLI tools to existing shells on first install — only one of these is used, not all)
- ~/OrbStack (empty dir for mounting shared files)
- /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools (to create symlinks for compatibility)
Not sure what the best solution is for people who don't use Homebrew to uninstall it. I've never liked separate uninstaller apps, and it's not possible to detect removal from /Applications when the app isn't running.
IMO documenting this (and uninstall section in GUI with link) would be enough for me. Used that and never felt neglected by devs.
And cough since we’re at with - did you consider Nixpkgs distribution?
I’m slowly moving deeper and deeper into ecosystem and use Home Manager for utilities that I use often (and use nix shell/nix run for one offs). Some packages are strictly GUI and while they aren’t handled flawlessly (self-updaters) it’s nice to have them on a single list.
Yet based on your list it’s a definitely a nixventure…
And yet, you are the only(?) one with that knowledge, so the alternative seems to be replying to HN threads with a curated list of things that a user must now open iTerm2 and handle by themselves. Something, unless I'm mistaken, that computers are really good at doing (Gatekeeper and privilege elevation nonsense aside)
Even just linking to the zap portion of your brew cask could go a long way since it would be the most succinct manifest if I correctly understand what it does
I agree this should be documented, but I still appreciate uninstallers.
Also, I'm a little confused about your statement:
> Not sure what the best solution is for people who don't use Homebrew to uninstall it.
You said at the start you've "been meaning to update the Homebrew cask to be more complete on zap" ... does that mean Homebrew uninstall will not do a complete job?
Before someone asks. I've been using macOS for a long time. I've never seen remnants like this from a program. Sure, there are often directories left in ~/Library/Application Support/, but this was more than that. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the details, but I ran across the bits in at least 3-4 places.