Definitive answer...does Tiger self-maintain or do I need Cocktail etc.?

Question

I just left Windows, (WinMe) after 5 years of suffering, and found Tiger; This is
my first computer that I actually enjoy owning!! I have read tons of conflicting or various opinions from Apple/and Discussion group...an Apple tech told me yesterday to just grab the entire cache folder/username/library/cache and drag to trash yesterday!!
Tiger does some maintenance on a regular schedule early each morning, 3:30
a.m. On Sat. I think Apple said it was 4:30, and early morning on the first day of each month. Is this adequate? I know where to check on "permissions" and look to see if "SMART" is ok. I have owned a Mac since November and this is
my only concern. Thanks for your consideration,
Brian
i-macG5   Mac OS X (10.4)   tiger 1gb

Answer 1

The only reason to dump cache files is if you are having some sort of problem. The reasoning behind this, as a troubleshooting action, is that the system and programs generate these constantly, therefore there is a greater chance that a cache file can get corrupted by an electronic hiccup and then cause a problem. But cache files help things run faster, so unless there IS a problem there is no reason to get rid of them.
The other sort of file that gets constantly written to is the plist files--the preference files for various parts of the system and programs. Like cache files they can get corrupted and cause a problem, and are automatically recreated, so if you are troubleshooting getting rid of them can sometimes be useful.
A third sort of file that gets constantly written to are log files. I've never heard of one being corrupted, but sometimes they get very bloated. The routine maintenance jobs basically consist of "rotating" these files--which means compressing the old ones and starting a fresh one. If there is actually problem--something constantly writing to a log file and causing your free space to start disappearing--it won't be solved by doing this, just have the effect temporarily minimized. You'll then need to find out what is causing the bloat and fix it. The only really useful thing done is updating the locate database, and that is only useful if you use the locate command in the Terminal. The daily job will also delete various junk files that badly written routines failed to get rid of.
If you want to see what these things do (and when they were last done) you can launch Console from your Utilities folder, click the Log icon in the toolbar, click the disclosure triangle in front of /var/log and then click the entries for daily.out, weekly.out and monthly.out. Personally I run the routines from the Terminal when it occurs to me that I haven't done it in awhile.
An easy way to run the file system consistency check is to restart and hold down the Shift key. The system will automatically run the fsck routine and fix any errors. It also disables third party startup items and a couple of Apple's as well, so it is another excellent troubleshooting step. Then restart normally. You might want to do this periodically--I often do it as a routine before installing an upgrade (if I think about it), as well as running permissions repair at that time.
So here's my maintenance schedule:
1. When I remember to do so I run the UNIX daily, weekly and monthly jobs, this is usually twice a month or so.
2. When there is a system update I do a permissions repair and often a file system consistency check as well.
That's it. OS X does it's own defragging. Safari seems prone to cache problems so I tell it to dump its cache if it seems to be cranky, and occasionally go in and dump the favicon cache myself (select and toss the contents of "/Users/yourname/Library/Safari/Icons").
Francine
Schwieder