MacOS-iCloud interop not working as expected

I've poked around a bit more by Google searching and using ChatGPT. I'm now of the following opinion. It seems that neither MacOS nor iCloud provide an automated way to do what I described in the root of this thread. However, it is possible to write a script that will do much as I described through judicious use of "brctl evict" and "brctl download".

I fed the following prompt to ChatGPT: "Please write an MacOS command-line script that will do the following: Go through the entirety of that portion of my local flesystem that syncs with iCloud. For each file, determine when it was last touched. Sort the files from most recently touched to least recently touched. On that sorted list, calculate a cumulative total of storage used. For all files for which that cumulative total is greater than a threshhold, use "brctl evict" to remove their local downloaded copies. For all files for which that cumulative total is less than a threshhold, use "brctl download" to download a local copy."

It gave me back this:

#!/bin/bash

# Set the threshold for cumulative storage usage (in bytes)

threshold=1000000000 # 1GB - Change this value as needed

# Create an array to hold file information

declare -a files_info=()

# Find all files in the iCloud-synced directory and get their last access time and size

while IFS= read -r -d '' file; do

last_touched=$(stat -f "%m" "$file")

size=$(stat -f "%z" "$file")

files_info+=("$last_touched $size $file")

done < <(find ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/ -type f -print0)

# Sort the files based on the last access time (most recent first)

sorted_files=($(printf '%s\n' "${files_info[@]}" | sort -nr))

# Initialize cumulative storage usage

cumulative_size=0

# Loop through the sorted files and calculate cumulative storage usage

for file_info in "${sorted_files[@]}"; do

file_size=${file_info#* } # Extract file size

cumulative_size=$((cumulative_size + file_size))

file_path=${file_info##* } # Extract file path

# If cumulative storage usage exceeds the threshold, evict the local copy

if [[ $cumulative_size -gt $threshold ]]; then

brctl evict "$file_path"

else

# Download a local copy if the cumulative storage usage is below the threshold

brctl download "$file_path"

fi

done

We all know that ChatGPT sometimes halucinates so, before I unleashed that script, I'd want to check it over very carefully and test it on a test subset of the directory structure.

Also, that's a one-time script. Of course, one could run it on a schedule by adding it to the launchd plist file.

That's ironic. I just tried to update, but was told, "Your disk does not have enough free space." I actually have automatic updates set to "On". If I had enough free space, the auto-update would have kept me up to date.

More: I know that it's possible, on my local machine, to select one or more files and/or folders and choose "Remove Download". That, I believe, removes the local copy of the object but leaves the copy on iCloud in place. Is it possible that the answer to my question is that I need to do that manually? That is, is it possible that my belief that this is supposed to happen automatically is wrong?

So my last post elicited what seems to be an AI-generated message telling me that I need at least 20 gb to update MacOS, and sending me to Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support. From there, I chose Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support. That tells me:

But when I follow that path through my settings, what I see does not look like that. There is no "Store in iCloud" option. I see instead:

My screenshots were disallowed, but you get the idea. I follow the instructions, but what I find in the menu structure is not what I'm told to expect. Most critically, there's no "Store in iCloud" option.

If I right click on a file, I sometimes see "Remove Download" or "Download Now", but never both for the same file at the same time. What then the difference between "Remove Download" and "Move to Trash", and why is there an option to "Download Now" for some files? Also, what is the meaning of the icon next to each file that sometimes looks like a cloud and sometimes looks like a cloud with an arrow emanating from it pointing downward?

If I right click on a file, I sometimes see "Remove Download" or "Download Now", but never both for the same file at the same time. What then the difference between "Remove Download" and "Move to Trash", and why is there an option to "Download Now" for some files? Also, what is the meaning of the icon next to each file that sometimes looks like a cloud and sometimes looks like a cloud with an arrow emanating from it pointing downward?

I'm installing that update as I type. I wonder why iOS didn't prompt me to do so.

Also, doesn't this seem to strongly suggest that my expectation is correct?