Trash-CLI

Command Line Interface

trash-cli trashes files recording the original path, deletion date, and permissions. It uses the same trashcan used by KDE, GNOME, and XFCE, but you can invoke it from the command line (and scripts).

It provides these commands:

  • trash-put trash files and directories.
  • trash-empty empty the trashcan(s).
  • trash-list list trashed files.
  • trash-restore restore a trashed file.
  • trash-rm remove individual files from the trashcan.

Usage

Trash a file:

$ trash-put foo

List trashed files:

$ trash-list
2008-06-01 10:30:48 /home/andrea/bar
2008-06-02 21:50:41 /home/andrea/bar
2008-06-23 21:50:49 /home/andrea/foo

Search for a file in the trashcan:

$ trash-list | grep foo
2007-08-30 12:36:00 /home/andrea/foo
2007-08-30 12:39:41 /home/andrea/foo

Restore a trashed file:

$ trash-restore
0 2007-08-30 12:36:00 /home/andrea/foo
1 2007-08-30 12:39:41 /home/andrea/bar
2 2007-08-30 12:39:41 /home/andrea/bar2
3 2007-08-30 12:39:41 /home/andrea/foo2
4 2007-08-30 12:39:41 /home/andrea/foo
What file to restore [0..4]: 4
$ ls foo
foo

Remove all files from the trashcan:

$ trash-empty

Remove only the files that have been deleted more than <days> ago:

$ trash-empty <days>

Example:

$ date
Tue Feb 19 20:26:52 CET 2008
$ trash-list
2008-02-19 20:11:34 /home/einar/today
2008-02-18 20:11:34 /home/einar/yesterday
2008-02-10 20:11:34 /home/einar/last_week
$ trash-empty 7
$ trash-list
2008-02-19 20:11:34 /home/einar/today
2008-02-18 20:11:34 /home/einar/yesterday
$ trash-empty 1
$ trash-list
2008-02-19 20:11:34 /home/einar/today

Remove only files matching a pattern:

$ trash-rm \*.o

Note: you need to use quotes in order to protect the pattern from shell expansion.

FAQ

How to create a top level .Trash dir?

Steps

sudo mkdir --parent /.Trash
sudo chmod a+rw /.Trash
sudo chmod +t /.Trash

Can I alias rm to trash-put?

You can but you shouldn’t. In the early days I thought it was a good idea to do that but now I changed my mind.

Although the interface of trash-put seems to be compatible with rm, it has different semantics which will cause you problems. For example, while rm requires -R for deleting directories trash-put does not.

But sometimes I forget to use trash-put, really can’t I?

You could alias rm to something that will remind you to not use it:

alias rm='echo "This is not the command you are looking for."; false'

Then, if you really want to use rm, simply prepend a slash to bypass the alias:

\rm file-without-hope

Note that Bash aliases are used only in interactive shells, so using this alias should not interfere with scripts that expect to use rm.

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