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TempDirector

A Windows symbolic-link manager. TempDirector redirects the cache and temp directories of desktop applications to a RAM disk with directory junctions, then rebuilds that directory tree on the RAM disk at every logon — cutting SSD writes while hot cache I/O stays in memory. Junctions don't need SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege, so the normal case runs with zero UAC prompts; elevation happens on demand only when a source path sits under Program Files / ProgramData or another protected location.

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Desktop UI

The UI speaks 中文 / English — the segmented switch sits at the top right. First launch defaults to English, and the choice is remembered.

Main window:

• Rule list: status icons only (✅ OK / ⚠️ broken link or empty target / ❌ not linked / 🚫 foreign reparse point; hover for the full explanation), source → target paths side by side, wanted/boot-rebuild flags; search, category filter and "needs attention only" narrow the list; checked rows drive batch actions (apply / restore / enable / disable / relink / delete); right-click a row for the same per-row actions on that row (or on the whole checked selection, if the row is already checked). A Size (MB) column shows each rule's cache usage; it stays — until you press Disk usage in the toolbar, which fills the column in. Presets whose source dir exists on this machine also show up as template rows at the bottom of the list (status column shows ＋): check one and press Apply selected, or use its own Add & apply, to create and link it without opening the dialog.
• Category sidebar: the “All → category → rule” tree on the left filters by category and jumps to a rule; rule nodes can be dragged to reorder within their category and the new order is saved automatically (the table’s drag handle shares the same sort order).
• Add / edit rule (all inline, no dialogs): “Add rule” inserts a blank draft row at the top of the list; click any cell of an existing rule to edit it in place — name, category, link type, source, target root + subpath, flags, auto-clean policy, capacity limit, excludes and notes. Enter or blur saves, Esc reverts. Source paths are expanded and validated inline; protected paths are marked and blocked. Changing target root / subpath / link type on a linked rule removes the old source link and rebuilds it at the new target when saving; only a source change prompts you to re-apply. Clicking a built-in template’s name pre-fills the draft row instead; ticking it still creates and applies in one step. Clicking another cell while editing saves the old cell and opens the new one, and scroll position / focus survive the refresh. Low-frequency columns can be hidden under “More → Columns”; the choice is remembered locally.
• Also: batch progress overlay, activity log, settings (autostart / scheduled cleaning / target roots), and a tray menu.

Build and run

Prebuilt binaries (NSIS installer + portable zip) are on the Releases page.

scripts\cargo.cmd build -p td-gui --release   # output: target\release\tempdirector-gui.exe

The interface is static files embedded into the exe — no npm, no bundler. To preview it without Tauri, open crates/td-gui/ui/index.html?mock=1 in a browser (add &progress=1 / &add=1 / &settings=1 / &ops=1 for the overlays and inline draft row).

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Autostart and elevation

Register a per-user logon task (no admin rights needed) to rebuild the RAM-disk tree automatically at every logon:

tempdirector autostart enable     # afterwards every logon rebuilds automatically
tempdirector autostart status     # inspect: registered? running what?
tempdirector autostart run        # trigger one run now, to verify
tempdirector autostart disable    # remove

The task action is <GUI path> boot-rebuild; portable setups also get --data-dir baked into the task, because scheduled tasks don't inherit your shell's environment variables. Failures are never silent: the report is stored in the database and written to logs/boot-rebuild.log, and the UI shows a banner on next open.

Directory junctions themselves need no privileges, but writing caches under C:\Program Files / C:\ProgramData / C:\Windows needs admin rights. Such rules are marked in the UI, and a batch apply offers to elevate through a one-shot worker: a job file containing rule ids only — no paths, required to live inside <data dir>\jobs\, relaunching itself via ShellExecuteExW(runas) and re-running the exact same safety checks as the GUI/CLI (blacklist, self-loop, occupancy detection). A job placed anywhere else is rejected with exit code 1.

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Quick start

# 1) Build (the script fills in the MSVC + Rust toolchain environment itself)
scripts\cargo.cmd build --release
# output: target\release\tempdirector.exe

# 2) Register the RAM disk as a target root
tempdirector roots add RAMDisk "R:"

# 3) Add a rule (source paths support %VAR% templates, expanded per user on import)
tempdirector rules add "Chrome cache" `
  "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache" `
  "browsers\chrome-cache" --category browser --enable

# 4) Inspect first: health check + occupancy + dry run
tempdirector status --all
tempdirector locks "<rule id of the Chrome cache rule>"
tempdirector apply --all --dry-run

# 5) Run for real (checks occupancy first; aborts without touching anything when occupied)
tempdirector apply --all

# 6) Boot rebuild
tempdirector boot-rebuild

# 7) Undo by restoring
tempdirector restore --all

The data directory defaults to %PROGRAMDATA%\TempDirector. Override it with the TEMPDIRECTOR_DATA_DIR environment variable or the --data-dir argument.

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Command reference

overview
  doctor                     environment self-check: data dir, link capability, target volumes, rule states, pending fixes
  version

target roots (RAM disk)
  roots list
  roots add <name> <path> [--timeout ms] [--hdd]
  roots rm <id>
  volume <R: or R:\Dir> [--timeout ms]        probe / wait for the volume to be ready

rules
  rules list [--enabled] [--category cat] [--search term] [--json]
  rules add <name> <source template> <target subpath> [--root id] [--category cat]
            [--link-type junction|symlink_dir] [--enable] [--no-boot] [--notes note]
  rules rm <id...>
  rules enable|disable <id...|--all>

inspection and operations
  status [--enabled|--all] [--category cat] [--search term] [--no-persist] [--json]
  locks <rule id|directory path> [--json]     check occupancy and name the process holding it
  apply <id...|--all> [--dry-run] [--merge] [--sha256] [--skip-lock-check]
  restore <id...|--all> [--dry-run] [--sha256]
  relink <id>                                 rebuild the link only (data untouched)

boot rebuild
  boot-rebuild [--json]
  autostart status                           whether the "rebuild at logon" task is registered
  autostart enable [--exe <path>]            register (per-user, no admin rights needed)
  autostart disable
  autostart run                              trigger one run manually, to verify

elevation worker (normally not needed manually)
  elevated <job.json>                        run a job as administrator (rule ids only, no paths)

config migration
  export <file.json>
  import <file.json> [--dry-run] [--ram-root R:]

audit
  events [--limit N]
  ops [--limit N]                            operation history (including pending fixes)

Category values: browser / design / dev / system / media / office / game / other

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Safety rules

1. Never delete source content before the data check passes. Cross-volume moves always go enumerate → copy → verify (file count + bytes, optional SHA-256) → delete source.
2. Deleting a link removes only the link — never recurse into a reparse point; doing so would wipe the real data on the RAM disk.
3. Never touch what you don't understand. Foreign reparse points (OneDrive placeholders, AppExecLink, mount points) are reported, not processed; when a software update replaces a link with a real directory, the boot guardian only warns and leaves it to a human.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md (Chinese) for 20+ edge cases.

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Repository layout

crates/
  td-core/                 engine library (no GUI dependencies)
    src/util.rs            path normalization, \\?\ long paths, env var expansion, volume detection
    src/safety.rs          rule blacklist (volume roots / system dirs / self-loops)
    src/link/              reparse point identification, Junction create/remove
    src/fsops/             occupancy detection (+Restart Manager), safe moving, merging, verification
    src/engine.rs          orchestration: decision tree → move → link → rollback → persist
    src/store/             SQLite schema / migrations / DAO / operation history
    src/boot/              waiting for volume readiness, batch rebuild at boot, DACL re-apply
    src/autostart.rs       logon task register / query / remove (schtasks + task XML)
    src/elevate.rs         elevation state detection, launching a process as admin and waiting
    src/worker.rs          the elevation worker's job protocol and executor (the trust anchor)
    src/portable.rs        config import / export
    presets.json           built-in preset list (cache dirs of common apps, embedded at compile time)
  td-cli/                  tempdirector.exe (management / elevation worker / boot rebuild)
  td-gui/                  tempdirector-gui.exe (Tauri 2 UI)
    src/api.rs             business layer: takes &Store, emits serde structs (unit-testable without a window)
    src/commands.rs        thin #[tauri::command] forwarding + progress events + folder dialog
    src/submode.rs         headless submodes: boot-rebuild / elevated (intercepted before Tauri)
    src/lib.rs             entry: submodes → in-memory store fallback → mark_stale_ops → register commands
    src/tray.rs            tray menu (show window / rebuild now / quit)
    ui/                    index.html / style.css / app.js (static files, embedded at compile time)
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md       architecture and edge cases (Chinese)
docs/screenshots/          UI screenshots (one Chinese set + one English set: main-window / add-rule / settings / progress)
scripts/cargo.cmd          dev build wrapper (fills in MSVC + Rust environment)
scripts/make_icon.py       app icon generation (pure PIL, re-runnable)
scripts/take-screens.cjs   UI screenshot generation (mock data + headless browser, Chinese and English sets, re-runnable)
rebuild.bat                one-click full rebuild (clean + release) and desktop shortcut refresh

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Preset rules

The "Add rule" dialog offers a preset dropdown with cache-directory templates for common apps, merged from two layers:

1. Built-in — crates/td-core/presets.json, embedded at compile time (editing it requires a rebuild).
2. User-external — presets.json in the data directory (%PROGRAMDATA%\TempDirector, or the TEMPDIRECTOR_DATA_DIR directory in portable mode). Same format, no rebuild:

[
  {
    "name": "My app cache",
    "category": "dev",
    "source_template": "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\MyApp\\Cache",
    "target_subpath": "dev\\myapp-cache",
    "note": "optional hint"
  }
]

A user entry whose source_template matches a built-in one (case-insensitive) overrides it; the rest are appended. Only entries whose source directory actually exists on this machine are shown. The chain is covered by the integration test crates/td-gui/tests/preset_override.rs.

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Besides the dialog dropdown, presets whose source directory exists on this machine are rendered directly as template rows at the bottom of the rule list (badge "➕ Not added"): check one and press Apply selected, or click the row's own Add & apply, to create and link it with the template defaults (junction, wanted on, rebuild on boot) — no dialog, no manual add step. Templates matching a source_template that already has a rule are hidden.

Development

scripts\cargo.cmd check --workspace --all-targets
scripts\cargo.cmd test  --workspace          # 186 tests (unit: td-core 165, td-cli 11, td-gui 6; integration: 4)
scripts\cargo.cmd build --release            # both exes at once
rebuild.bat                                  # full rebuild: clean + release + refresh the desktop shortcut
python scripts\make_icon.py                  # regenerate the app icon

scripts/cargo.cmd wraps cargo to fill in the MSVC + Rust toolchain environment (vcvars64.bat, PATH, RUSTUP_HOME / CARGO_HOME); keep it pure ASCII — cmd.exe reads batch files with an OEM code page. rebuild.bat also refreshes the desktop shortcut after a clean rebuild, since cargo clean wipes target\ and any earlier .lnk would dangle.

Retaking the UI screenshots for this README (mock data + headless browser, no Tauri):

# requires playwright (npm i playwright); uses the Edge / Chrome already installed
node scripts\take-screens.cjs --lang en     # English set
node scripts\take-screens.cjs --lang zh     # Chinese set
node scripts\take-screens.cjs --lang en --check   # scan for missing translations only

About the tauri version

Pin the whole family together — tauri 2.11.5 / tauri-build 2.6.3 / tauri-codegen 2.6.3 / tauri-macros 2.6.3 / tauri-plugin 2.6.3 / tauri-utils 2.9.3 / tauri-runtime 2.11.3 / tauri-runtime-wry 2.11.4 / wry 0.55.1. The transitive crates are range dependencies, so bumping only the main crate breaks the build with errors like no variant named UnexpectedMenuKind; move the whole set with cargo update -p <crate> --precise <ver>.