SnapPoint is an interactive system auditor designed to identify and resolve issues caused by accumulated software installations on development machines. It specifically targets the debris left behind by package managers, tutorials, experiments, and quick installs that accumulate over years of development work.
The tool offers several key capabilities including finding ghost binaries (binaries in /usr/local/bin that no package manager claims), resolving PATH conflicts (multiple versions of tools fighting for your $PATH), cleaning cache bloat (GBs of cache for deleted tools), and identifying orphaned packages (dependencies that remained after parent removal). Additional features include scanning systems to identify every global binary and its origin story, and purging orphaned binaries not managed by any tool.
SnapPoint operates through a command-line interface with specific commands like 'snappoint doctor' to check system health and see available package managers, 'snappoint scan' to discover all binaries and their origins, and 'snappoint list' to view conflicts, orphans, and ghosts. The tool provides detailed output showing exactly what's installed and where it came from, including version information and conflict detection.
The primary benefit is maintaining a clean, conflict-free development environment by systematically identifying and resolving common system issues. Use cases include cleaning up after years of development work, resolving version conflicts between tools, removing unused binaries and caches, and maintaining system organization across multiple package managers.
SnapPoint targets developers working on macOS and Linux systems who need to manage complex development environments. It's built as a single binary using Go programming language, requires no sudo permissions, and is available as open-source software under MIT license.
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SnapPoint is designed for developers working on macOS and Linux systems who need to manage complex development environments. It targets programmers who have accumulated years of software installations from tutorials, experiments, and various package managers. The tool serves developers who want to maintain clean, organized systems free from conflicts and orphaned software components.