CleanRSD

CleanRSD setups removable storage devices (RSDs) such as USB flash drives, SD cards and removable hard drives, so that they aren't polluted by self-serving, shameful, indelicate programs. This saves some space, and more importantly speeds up the device (especially if it's a large one) and extends its lifetime.

Features

CleanRSD currently does the following:

• Create two files named IF YOU FIND THIS.TXT and SI VOUS TROUVEZ CECI.TXT at the root directory of the device, respectively in English and in French. That may help if you ever lose your device — though it doesn't replace proper backups.
• Prevent Apple file system events daemon from writing filesystem logs to the .fseventsd directory.
• Prevent Apple Spotlight from snooping into your data and writing its search index to the .Spotlight-V100 directory.
• Prevent Apple Mac OS X from writing deleted files to the .Trashes and ._.Trashes directories.
• Clean up .DS_Store directories left by Apple Finder as well as Thumbs.db and desktop.ini files and the System Volume Information and $RECYCLE.BIN directories left by Microsoft Windows Explorer.

Installation

Just copy the cleanrsd file where you want, edit it to customize the IF YOU FIND THIS.TXT and SI VOUS TROUVEZ CECI.TXT files, and make it executable (chmod a+x cleanrsd).

Usage

Run cleanrsd <path to the removable storage device mount point>

Recommendations

CleanRSD improves a bit over doing nothing with your removable storage devices. However, you should keep in mind that the right answers to these issues are:

• Never lend a removable storage device to anyone running an Apple or Microsoft operating system, as these are shameless, untrustworthy pieces of crap.
• More generally, never lend a removable storage device to anyone you don't trust to be both 1) trustworthy and 2) competent enough to avoid crappy software.
• If you ever have to lend a removable storage device, make sure that it's readonly (hardware readonly). Not only will it prevent the inconveniences CleanRSD fights against more reliably than it does, but it will also protect you from data tempering and malware. If you don't trust whoever you lend the device, though, it's still no guarantee.
• If hardware readonly is not an option, consider the rather safe option of formatting the device as ISO 9660 (which is a read-only filesystem) instead of FAT32 (which is a read-write filesystem). Formatting the device using a non-Apple, non-Windows filesystem is another option which lets the device writable on less crappy operating systems, but you'll lose the ability to read the device everywhere (unlike with ISO 9660, which is most likely the most widely supported filesystem — even more than FAT32).
• Never accept a removable storage device from anyone you wouldn't lend one to. Not only could it contain malware (including firmware and driver exploits), but it could also be a fake storage device and a real input device (yes, such things exist), or a so-called USB-killer device, which can physically destroy your computer or part thereof.
• Always have proper backups of what is on your removable storage devices. You can't avoid losing them or having them stolen, and these have a rather short lifetime anyway.
• Always use proper encryption for sensitive data on your removable storage devices. You can't avoid losing them or having them stolen or copied in an eye blink.

Roadmap

CleanRSD would like to add the following features:

• Prevent Microsoft Windows Explorer from writing image thumbnails to the Thumbs.db file.
• Prevent Microsoft Windows Explorer from writing display settings to the desktop.ini file.
• Prevent Microsoft Windows Explorer from writing device information to the System Volume Information directory.
• Prevent Microsoft Windows Explorer from writing deleted files to the $RECYCLE.BIN directory.
• Prevent Apple Finder from writing information to the .DS_Store directory.

If you know how to implement these features, please let me know!

Contributing and reporting bugs

Contributions are welcome through GitHub pull requests.

Please report bugs and feature requests on GitHub issues.

License

CleanRSD is copyright (C) 2017 Jérémie Roquet jroquet@arkanosis.net and licensed under the ISC license.