Delete unnecessary files in /System/Library for Mac OS X

Do not touch the System directory! Those are files that the system may or may not need in the future (or currently). OS X uses Python, so just because you may not need the module, that doesn't mean that OS X doesn't. Really, this is why they created SIP in the first place.


The directories are protected by System Integrity Protection in OS X El Capitan.

In order to disable it:

  1. Reboot & hold Cmd ⌘ R at the chimes
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Type csrutil disable; reboot

Hints from http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/05/disable-rootless-system-integrity-protection-mac-os-x/

It isn't advisable to actually do this, however. Deleting files in the System directory could have unforeseeable and potentially disastrous consequences.


These aren't your files. You absolutely do not understand what you are doing. Other people have already told you this, but not what you actually need to do instead.

Here is a decent rundown on how to set up your own parallell python installation with Homebrew, and then virtualenv on top of that so you don't run into conflicts.

The only reason anyone should ever touch /System is if they're running a hackintosh.

Edit: using pip with virtualenv is what you should do by default anyways. It's not a last resort for when you run into issues.