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What would be the best way to figure out all files & folders that have been created and/or modified by a certain program install?

I've tried Smart Folders on Mac, but this couldn't show me hidden files, e.g. ~/.test_profile.

I've also tried using find from this and this post. But predictably get quite a massive output.

Another idea I had is to spin up a Docker container, install the application, and somehow do a git diff-like operation on the whole file system (including root) to see what changed/additions have been made.

Any ideas?

Context: I recently installed a program called Anaconda. But then it was a nightmare so I deleted it (for the most part). The install leaves behind a bunch "artifacts" that even their own clean-uninstall program doesn't remove. Files such as the ones mentioned here. In order to find & remove this I just want to see all new files and folders that have been created throughout laptop. Is this possible? I'm paranoid.

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  • Not sure how it works in mac... presumably this was a graphical installer? No way to unpack the distributable and look?
    – mitts
    Jul 13, 2022 at 7:15
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    @mitts - you can look inside a pkg installer if you have the right app, but trying to figure out what it all does is not trivial. It will all have been logged to the OS 'receipts' at install, which is how AppCleaner etc know what to look for at uninstall - i.stack.imgur.com/MQdA4.png
    – Tetsujin
    Jul 13, 2022 at 7:59
  • I'm not at all familiar with mac, but looking at that image I'd cat the packageinfo files, probably have a look over the pre-install script (it will presumably check for existing installations, and dependencies - which will point you at what it wants to install) and probably try and unpack the "payload" files, which are presumably archives of actual data. If it all went to 'reciepts' (presumably package management cache) then the OS should be able to uninstall it cleanly without needing an additional app??
    – mitts
    Jul 15, 2022 at 3:25
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    @mitts - the problem with being "not at all familiar with mac" is your suggestions don't apply. The OS never does either installs or uninstalls. Most Mac apps are simply drag & drop to the Applications folder; Uninstall is throw the app in the Trash. Any leftovers from this method are just now-defunct prefs files, harmless to leave in situ. Anything installed by its own package installer should [& in fact must] have its own uninstaller. If that fails it may be because the leftovers are simply unimportant prefs etc, or that the uninstaller was badly coded.
    – Tetsujin
    Jul 15, 2022 at 8:13

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AppCleaner (Freeware) will generally find everything an install reported to the OS as belonging to that app.

EasyFind (freeware) will find things Spotlight won't [Spotlight will not search hidden or system areas]. It won't really search by date created/added though.

You'll probably discover, if you do a terminal find that about 300 files a day will be considered 'new', so that might be a lot of work to filter.

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