Ever want to know exactly what was installed by some application on OS X? I almost always do, when some application tells me it is installing 5000 files, I really want to be able to make sure I can get rid of all those files when I am done with it.

Enter WatchInstall, a small script I wrote to help me with this task:

This script will mark the time just before you install something, then run a find to locate all files newer than that time. Finally, a log is output on your desktop.

To install, simply copy the code to a file, run chmod +x on it and put it somewhere in your path. Run it just before you install some software, when the software is done installing, hit ‘d’ in your terminal, and you should be all set.

You do have to be careful to not run other apps, check email, IM etc while running this script, or those apps will make new files that will get logged as well. However, most people who are going to get this, will understand that point already.