Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

On the other hand, there are times when it may benefit you to make a few changes to items
in the main Library folder. This could be anything from installing a screen saver that you want to
make available to all users of your computer to uninstalling some items left over from an old
application or hardware device. That said, you should still be 100 percent sure of what you are
doing before you do it. While errors here might not render your system unusable, they could certainly
make it less usable.
CAUTION Although sometimes you may want to clean out old unnecessary files that tend to
build up in you Library folder, make sure that the items you remove are no longer used. Sometimes
an item installed by one item is used by another item as well (this is especially true with
certain common frameworks and components). Often it’s better to err on the side of keeping
an unnecessary item rather then accidentally deleting a necessary one.
Personal Library Folder
The Library folder inside you home directory (~/Library) is your own personal Library folder.
This is where the system and individual application items that affect you are kept. This includes
your personal system and application preferences, your mail settings (and actual mail), your
Safari bookmarks, your iCal data, and much more. This Library folder is the preferred one for
adding personal items such as screen savers, desktop backgrounds, and add-on scripts. This
Library folder is also in the most need of an occasional cleaning; however, all the cautions just
mentioned still apply.
Common Library Items
Each of the Library folders tend to share a number of subfolders that contain the same types of
items; some of the Library folders also contain unique subfolders that have special significance.
Table 2-1 points out a few common Library subfolders and explains their purposes.
Table 2-1. Common Library Subfolders and Their Purposes
Folder Name Purpose
CHAPTER 2 THE FILE SYSTEM 29
Application Support This folder is the primary folder for applications to store their support files,
usually in a subfolder named after the application. Additionally, some
companies will store information that may be shared among different
applications here (like Apple and Adobe). Also, some applications will store
their data files here (as such, it’s important to keep this folder backed up
along with any other important data). In general, if you delete an application,
then the support files contained here are safe to delete. Additionally, some
application folders will contain subfolders where users may add plug-ins,
scripts, or other features.
Audio The Audio folder contains subfolders for audio plug-ins (Audio Units, VST,
Digidesign, etc.) and other support items for audio applications (this includes
all of your GarageBand loops and plug-ins).
Automator The Automator folder in /System/Library contains many default Automator
actions that are used within Automator to build more complex workflows.
Additional Automator actions may be installed in either /Library/Automator
or ~/Library/Automator (however, these folders will need to be created, as
they don’t exist by default).
Continued