• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root De clutter sd card

ducky1979

ducky1979

Android Expert
Just a quick one chaps, if i remove alot of the crap from my sd and only put back my media, pics and needed/wanted files, when I reboot will the apps rebuild what files they need or am I better just starting from a complete fresh install?
 
The apps will put the folder structure back in place but some data that those apps may have had on SD will be gone.

Essentially I think you should just look at the root folders initially and identify ones for applications you know you no longer have
 
ducky1979 said:
Just a quick one chaps, if i remove alot of the crap from my sd and only put back my media, pics and needed/wanted files, when I reboot will the apps rebuild what files they need or am I better just starting from a complete fresh install?
Click to expand...
the apps should rebuild them when they require them
keep the androidsecure folder as that is used for builtin apps2sd
 
I've got so much shit on it i don't know what I need and don't need. I've used sdmaid before to remove stuff but doing it myself is easier, ill have to give it a go, I won't touch rom specific files its just all the logs and various apk's and stuff. I'll have a clearout tonight. I hate an untidy file structure.
 
hmm we need an app that changes the static routes and re point them to organised file locations on the sdcard.
wonder whether one could be developed.
basically you can create your folder structure like
Apps
Videos
>camcorder
Pictures
>camera
Music
Downloads

then the application could read the apps and find out all the file path storages and give you opportunity to change that. so that while the app thinks its going to the original path it is masked and linked to the new one.
for apps you have the option for it to create a default folder within the apps folder under the name of the application itself


Bet someone could make that. if i knew enough about builing apps i would make it and sell it for monies
 
Sounds like a profitable idea, im still struggling with getting my head around using Linux so ive no hope! I do know someone who's created an app so could ask him if he thinks it's doable, its basically an app which gives you the option of where you require the root structure to be stored. It would make a useful app but i think it would have to have root privileges to allow for root apps.
 
it would need root privaledges. dont give it to him, i have a few devs here. i might even toy about with it myself
 
Ok pal, if you need any help give me a shout, it would have to somehow monitor cache for app downloads so before the app installs the 'sorter' app asks where you want it installing. This has great potential. Good luck SN, in the meantime ill tidy mine manually. :-(
 
hmmm possibly not so much cache, it would be the installer as it would need to pickup on where the installer is placing sdcard related files.
 
Ahhh forgotten about the installer, well your the boffin, do your dev pals think it's possible, its gotta be hasn't it though. Or even if it's just an app that you run manually that can just rewrite storage location, surely it would only work in a similar way to a2sd ext works? I dunno my guesses are probably way off, if i knew what and how I'd defo be on it. Once I've learned Linux I will move onto app development, can anyone recommend a good place or site to learn Linux and all development please? I'd love to be able to understand it all.
 
ive not spoken to them, one of them is ill on holiday and wont be back for a while but im in no rush.
I think the first think is just seeing if it can hook the apks currently installed and find out the filepath locations.
if we can get it to do that we can then see if we can get it to create new locations and give an option to move the existing data to the new location.
next would be to see if the app can either moniter when the other application is trying to put an app in the original location and if it does redirect it to the new one or some how spoof the new location to be the old one.
once thats established we would need to see if we can either get it to intercept the installer and put a wait command on it untill you specify a directory for it to go into.
for example: if you were installing copilot it could do
"sdcard folder creation detected for copilot. would you like to move this location to /sdcard/Apps/Copilot?" Yes, No, Choose another location.
when selected it will continue the installer


now i dont know if the last bit is possible
i have an inclin the rest is possible
 
hahaha it does but i dount think it will be from a user perspective, be a bit like a windows installer but less clicks
 
Oh, this sounds like a fantastic app! I would be prepared to pay some money for that feature.

The clutter is truly annoying, and takes quite a lot of knowledge to manage successfully.

How hard would it be for Google to make this a permanent feature of Android? And I'm mostly asking you, SUroot, since I guess you are the most qualified to answer this since you are the only ROM dev I know of...
 
Surely all Google would have to do is add /apps after whatever the installer is scripted to install to,
Not sure how easy it would be to actually change though, is the installer something we could take apart?
 
ducky1979 said:
Surely all Google would have to do is add /apps after whatever the installer is scripted to install to,
Not sure how easy it would be to actually change though, is the installer something we could take apart?
Click to expand...
exactly, and not sure we could take it apart, im not even sure you could intercept or replace the installer
 
One way would be to get hold of the installer and try and decompile it, but as it's in the source code it could be difficult to implement on all devices, especially as there are so many different types and names for storage on android devices, it would have to be modified for each particular rom/device,
Rasta, your more advanced at this, is it worth a look?
I don't think it could be an app, well not easily anyway but is it possible to do it on a rom basis?
 
I know of two linux apps that are used to redirect calls to files in the home directory and re-route them to ~/.config ~/.local/share and ~/.cache which.

One of them is a LD_PRELOAD library which I know very little about, and which is not ideal and has problems. The other is a fuse mount applocation which I've not looked into but, assuming fuse is supported on Android might be the better way to go.

Unfortunately I cannot find the second one and know even less about how fuse works. However I believe that you could use it to mount your app to sdcard root and redirect save/open calls to the directory paths you wish.

I'll have a dig around and see if I can find it as I think it was open source.
 
Thanks, I'll have a look, although to be honest I reckon it might as well be in Chinese for what sense it would make to me, I'm still new to all this, I'm trying to learn Linux, ive actually just ordered a book to try and learn it better. But Thankyou for that,
 
ducky1979 said:
Thanks, I'll have a look, although to be honest I reckon it might as well be in Chinese for what sense it would make to me, I'm still new to all this, I'm trying to learn Linux, ive actually just ordered a book to try and learn it better. But Thankyou for that,
Click to expand...

I use linux and it's not that simple for me. That app is written in C too, so may not be easily ported to Android. However, someone who knows the internals of Android might be able to use it as a starting point.

OT but good luck with learning linux, it's a very customisable OS so is worth playing with (it might not be suitable for all). With virtual machines and dual boot, you don't even have to commit when you try it.
 
I've got ubuntu on dual boot now and managed a couple of things, but not without help, but it's something to keep my brain ticking, i love IT and all this sorts of stuff and i would love to be able to understand it one day, all i can do is try.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom