Maybe it is time to get it again but, as you say, is there any need unless something goes really wrong?
I suppose that's up to the individual user.
AFAIK, AppleJack only offers these 5 tasks:
• repair disk
• repair permissions
• cleanup cache files
• validate pref files
• cleanup virtual memory
The first one we can do simply with
fsck -fy. The second one (permissions) is more complicated, because a few frameworks need to be loaded before we can use the
diskutil binary in SU mode. Cache cleaning (3), pref validating (4) with
plutil, and VM removing (5) are similarly matters related to
troubleshooting... not anything normally considered as "maintenance".
I think AJ's purpose really comes into focus when there is some problem which either:
• prevents login (else we could just as easily do the first 4 while logged in) or,
• prevents Disk Utility (or Terminal, etc.) from working while logged in.
It's really handy for portable Mac users (*Book machines), because we don't need to lug around our boot DVD for certain things (i.e., the 5 tasks listed above). [it's important to remember that AJ needs to be "installed"
before some login problem happens, else it'll be too late.]
idunno, maybe once a year i might deep clean all caches for the heck of it... but that's not really a routine we need for any reason. I do however run fsck or (more often) *verify* various backup volumes (etc) with Disk Utility from time to time. That may also fall in line with "
change the oil in the car" type of thinking, which makes us users feel productive [or something?]. So anyway, i guess i'm guilty of that sort of activity to some degree as well. But i try to keep it to a reasonable minimum.
--
FWIW, Dan Frakes wrote a
review of version 1.5 last year, and the word "fan" was mentioned:Â
I’m a big fan of AppleJack, but you don’t have to be a troubleshooting expert to appreciate it.
