Delete.py: `rm` with safety checks added

Demo Video:

Try it out:

git clone https://github.com/Songtech-0912/safe-delete.git ~/.safe-delete && ~/.safe-delete/install.sh

Overview

It is so often the case that I misuse the rm command. Take this, for example:

> rm package*
# Result: deleted package.json and package-lock.json

Ahem...I just deleted my precious package.json while trying to delete my package-lock.json (and forgetting the other file). Or what about this:

> ls | grep hello.txt
hello.txt

> rm -rf helo.txt
# no warning

> rm -rf helllo.txt
# no warning

> rm -rf hello.tx
# still no warning!

Unfortunately, the file is still there, and I have no idea that I didn't delete it. Or if this happens:

> rm -rf node_modules
# rm: cannot remove 'node_modules': Is a directory

Arrgh...you get the idea.

And these little things add up.

We programmers have to use the rm command dozens of times a day. Every time we do something silly, wrong or even dangerous, the rm command is unable to correct our mistakes. What's more, the rm command is a silent command. If you run rm -rf, there's nothing stopping you from deleting your entire codebase - which you forgot to push to GitHub for some lazy reason.

That is why I created delete.py.

Functionality

In most ways delete.py resembles the rm command, it just does things in a safer way. After all, it is basically a wrapper around rm, with some improvements using python. These include:

Colorful commands with red/green/bold colors to keep things clear
Avoiding the is a directory nonsense of rm
Showing how to solve a particular error if you face one
Allowing you to move something to trash rather than to permanently remove it
Cancel any operation at any time with Ctrl C
Confirmation bars that are enough to catch your attention but not enough to affect your productivity
(Opinionated) Making moving to trash default
(Opinionated) Asking for confirms, and always setting the less destructive version as default
(Opinionated) Having only one "true" command line argument so you can't mistype an argument and shoot yourself in the foot

Notably, while delete.py technically "absorbs" any command other than -ff, so you could really pass any argument to it (such as -4u or -m8), it only has one real commandline flag: -ff. The two f's stand for "forced force" which is why I added it.

Usage is very simple:

delete [-ff] <your-file-or-folder>
# e.g. delete ~/Downloads/Bloated-useless-stuff.gif

This command can be made even more simple if you read about using aliases down below:

Install

Basic Install

To install this application, run this one-liner command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Songtech-0912/Safe-Delete/master/install.sh | bash
export $TRASH = ~/.local/share/Trash

What this basically does is to run my install script after downloading it from Github. This ensures you'll always have the latest, most up-to-date version of delete.py available from your computer. Next, it sets your Trash directory - if a trash folder does not exist then one will be created, but you can configure it to your liking.

Install errors

You may need to open a new terminal after running the command for delete to start working
You will need to make sure that there is a file called ~/.profile in your home directory

Manual Install

First, clone the source code from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/Songtech-0912/Safe-Delete.git && cd Safe-Delete

Then, copy the python script to /usr/local/bin:

sudo cp delete.py /usr/local/bin/delete

Setup aliases:

# if you don't have a ~/.profile, create one
echo "export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH" > ~/.profile
echo "alias rm='delete'" > ~/.zshrc # if you are using zsh shell (most MacOS)
echo "alias rm='delete'" > ~/.bashrc # if you are using bash shell (most GNU/Linux)

Development

To start developing this application, run this command:

git clone https://github.com/Songtech-0912/Safe-Delete.git && cd Safe-Delete
bash manual_install.sh

Aliases

To fully make use of delete.py however, I would recommend you alias it as rm. For those that don't know, an alias is like a command substituter, so when you type in one command, like this one:

> rm -rf my_useless_bloated_1GB_node_modules_folder

The alias actually runs this command in the background:

> delete node_modules

(In this case, the aliases used were alias rm='delete' and alias node_modules='my_useless_bloated_1GB_node_modules_folder')

This is something that the install script will do by default, but if you are manually installing it, you will need to do this yourself. Just open your ~/.bashrc file (if you use bash), or ~/.zshrc file (if you use zsh)*, and add in this line (no space before or after the equal sign):

alias rm='delete'

*: Fish shell aliases are something I don't know much about, please inform me if you are experienced with it!

If you do this, your old muscle memory of rm doesn't need to be forcibly retaught to use delete instead.

Bugs and Fixes

This project has a fair number of bugs that are being fixed. However, you can be sure that more and more bugs will get fixed as the project matures!

Bug with giving too many arguments fixed
Bug with a filename with spaces fixed (so you can now say delete "hello world.txt")
Bug with \ in filenames fixed (so delete my\ file is now valid)
Fix not deleted file bug: check if file has actually been deleted when -ff is used

Roadmap

Implement support for safe globbing (e.g. delete *.py) but also make sure that the user knows how many files they are deleting in this way (e.g. tell the user "you are deleting 3 files with extension .py, here are their filenames")
Make it cross-platform (by supporting Windows as well)
Auto-detect the user's system Trash folder on first launch, or create one if one does not exist already
Add in an option to clean the Trash folder such as delete -c which would empty the trash folder - this avoids the Trash folder getting cluttered with items that delete "safely" sent to Trash and didn't permanently delete
- Also warn the user if their Trash folder has > 1 GB of files

Limitations

Deleting multiple files, or using certain expressions that rm provides isn't always going to work with delete.py. For instance, the wildcard symbol (*) which is used to delete multiple files only deletes the first file of the sequence using delete.py. This is planned to be fixed soon.

Songtech-0912/Safe-Delete

Delete.py: rm with safety checks added