trash-cli - Command Line Interface to FreeDesktop.org Trash.
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
Restore multiple trashed files separated by ',', also support range:
$ 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 What file to restore [0..3]: 0-2, 3 $ ls foo bar bar2 foo2 foo bar bar2 foo2
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 backslash 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.
Where the trashed files go?
File trashed from the home partition will be moved here:
~/.local/share/Trash/
How to auto delete files older that 30 days?
Run this:
(crontab -l ; echo "@daily $(which trash-empty) 30") | crontab -
This will update your crontab file with a trash-empty command that runs daily and removes files older than 30 days. To review your crontab use: crontab -l
Installation
The easy way
Requirements:
- Python 3 (Python 2.7 may work)
- pip (use apt-get install python-pip on Debian, use apt install python3-pip on Ubuntu)
Installation command:
pip install trash-cli
Note: you may want add ~/.local/bin to the PATH:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH":~/.local/bin' >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc # reload .bashrc
From sources
System-wide installation:
git clone https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.git cd trash-cli sudo pip install .
User-only installation:
git clone https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.git cd trash-cli pip install .
After the user installation you may want add this line to your .bashrc:
export PATH=~/.local/bin:"$PATH"
For uninstalling use:
pip uninstall trash-cli
From package manager
Debian/Ubuntu (apt):
sudo apt install trash-cli
Bugs and feedback
If you discover a bug please report it here:
https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli/issues
You can also email me to [email protected]. On Twitter I'm @andreafrancia.
Development
Environment setup:
virtualenv env --no-site-packages source env/bin/activate pip install -r requirements-dev.txt -r requirements.txt
Running tests:
pytest -m 'not slow' # run only fast tests pytest -m 'slow' # run slow tests pytest # run all tests