How to clean npm junk from disk (node_modules, nvm, npm)

WARNING: All processes are irreversible!

Delete all unused global node modules and Node.js executables installed with nvm

Running nvm ls will show you all versions installed, you can use nvm uninstall v12.2.0 for example to uninstall a specific version, however this doesn’t remove global npm packages that you installed for this version. It’s better to go to ~/.nvm/versions/node folder and rm -rf versions that you don’t need.

A useful command to delete all versions that you aren’t currently using:

cd ~/.nvm/versions/node; ls -A | grep -v `nvm current` | xargs rm -rf

Delete all node_modules folders from your projects

Check size of node_modules in folder with your projects

# Mac / Linux
cd documents
find . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune | xargs du -chs

# Windows
cd documents
FOR /d /r . %d in (node_modules) DO @IF EXIST "%d" echo %d"

# --- Example output ---
255M ./someProject/node_modules
482M ./anotherOne/node_modules
707M total

Delete all node_modules folders

Mac / Linux

find . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' +

Windows

FOR /d /r . %d in (node_modules) DO @IF EXIST "%d" rm -rf "%d"

Yarn and npm cache

yarn cache clean
npm cache clean --force

Xcode

Really nice tool for deleting old simulators, archives and other Xcode junk: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/devcleaner-for-xcode/id1388020431?mt=12

Homebrew

Homebrew periodacaly performs cleanup but if you need some extra space now, you can run:

brew cleanup

Docker

Docker needs to be running for this to work. Be aware that docker removes all images that currently aren’t used, so if you want to keep something, start it and it won’t be deleted. Check docs for more info.

docker system prune -a

add ‘—volumes’ to delete all volumes as well

If you have some lang/tool/ide that requires cleanup leave a comment and I will add it.