trash-cli - Command Line Interface to FreeDesktop.org Trash

|Downloads|

简体中文_

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 a trashed file while overwriting existing files::

$ echo "original">foo
$ ls
foo
$ trash-put foo
$ echo "new">foo
$ trash-restore --overwrite
0 2022-11-01 22:15:00 /home/andrea/foo
What file to restore [0..0]: 0
$ cat foo
original

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 all files from the trashcan (force/silent - no prompt)::

$ trash-empty -f

Remove only the files that have been deleted more than 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 do the trashed files go?

File trashed from the home partition will be moved here::

    ~/.local/share/Trash/

How to auto delete files older than 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 also works)
 * pipx_ (optional, to install in a clean environment)

If pipx is available::

    pipx install trash-cli

Alternatively, install with vanilla pip::

    pip install trash-cli

Note: you may want to add ~/.local/bin to the PATH::

    echo 'export PATH="$PATH":~/.local/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
    source ~/.bashrc # reload .bashrc

For uninstalling use::

    pipx uninstall trash-cli

or::

    pip uninstall trash-cli

Bleeding Edge (from sources)

First of all you need to uninstall any previous version of trash-cli::

$ [sudo] pip uninstall trash-cli # remove the previous version (with pip)
$ [sudo] apt-get remove trash-cli # remove the previous version (with apt)
$ [sudo] yum uninstall trash-cli # remove the previous version (with yum)
$ ... # refer to the package manager of your distribution

Then install the latest version from git::

$ [sudo] pip install git+https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli

After the user installation you may want to add this line to your .bashrc/.zshrc::

export PATH=~/.local/bin:"$PATH"

From package manager

Debian/Ubuntu (apt)::

    sudo apt install trash-cli

Arch Linux (pacman)::

    sudo pacman -S trash-cli

Fedora (dnf)::

    sudo dnf install trash-cli

MacOS (Homebrew)::

    brew install trash-cli
    echo 'export PATH="$(brew --prefix trash-cli)/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
    source ~/.bashrc

Install shell completions

You need to install by::

pipx install 'trash-cli[completion]'

or::

pip install 'trash-cli[completion]'

Then::

cmds=(trash-empty trash-list trash-restore trash-put trash)
for cmd in ${cmds[@]}; do
  $cmd --print-completion bash | sudo tee /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/$cmd
  $cmd --print-completion zsh | sudo tee /usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_$cmd
  $cmd --print-completion tcsh | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/$cmd.completion.csh
done

Missing support for Btrfs volumes

trash-cli does not support Btrfs volumes. I don't have any system nor time and/or knowledge to implement this kind of support.

If you need a trash implementation, you can check out the rmw_ project.

.. _rmw: https://github.com/theimpossibleastronaut/rmw

If you want to, and can, and know how to add support for Btrfs with sensible automation tests, please send a pull request.

Bugs

If you discover a bug please report it here:

https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli/issues

Feedback

You can send me an email using [email protected].

Development

Environment setup::

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install . '.[dev]'

Running tests::

pytest -m 'not slow'        # run only fast tests
pytest -m 'slow'            # run slow tests
pytest                      # run all tests

Thanks

Thanks to Paypal donors.

Thanks to project contributors_.

Thanks to JetBrains_ for their license for Open Source Development

.. |Downloads| image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/trash-cli .. _简体中文: https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli/blob/master/README_zh-CN.rst .. _project contributors: https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli/graphs/contributors .. _JetBrains: https://jb.gg/OpenSource .. _pipx: https://pypa.github.io/pipx/