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

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 before <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

To remove only files matching a pattern:

$ trash-rm \*.o

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

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 good idea do that but now I changed my mind.

The interface of trash-put seems to be compatible with rm it has a different semantic that will cause you problems. For example, while rm requires -R for deleting directories trash-put does not.

But sometimes I forgot to use trash-put, really can't I?

You may 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'

If you really want use rm simply prepend a slash:

\rm file-without-hope

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

Installation (the easy way)

Requirements:

Python 2.7

setuptools (use apt-get install python-setuptools on Debian)

Installation command:

easy_install trash-cli

Install from sources

System-wide installation:

git clone https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.git
cd trash-cli
sudo python setup.py install

User-only installation:

git clone https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.git
cd trash-cli
python setup.py install --user

Bugs and feedback

If you discover a bug please report it to:

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

Mail me at andrea@andreafrancia.it, on twitter I'm @andreafrancia.

Development

Environment setup:

virtualenv env --no-site-packages
source env/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

Running tests:

nosetests unit_tests           # run only unit tests
nosetests integration_tests    # run all integration tests
nosetests -A 'not stress_test' # run all tests but stress tests
nosetests                      # run all tests

Check the installation process before release:

python check_release_installation.py

Profiling unit tests:

pip install gprof2dot
nosetests --with-profile --profile-stats-file stats.pf --profile-restrict=unit_tests unit_tests
gprof2dot -w  -f pstats stats.pf | dot -Tsvg >| stats.svg
open stats.svg

ninefive/trash-cli