Command Line trash

By  on  

One of the first commands you learn when experimenting with command line is rm, the utility for deleting files and directories. Deletion is a core computer UI operation but operating systems use a "Trash" paradigm, where files are stored before truly deleted. With the rm utility, however, files are immediately, permanently deleted.

If you're like me and afraid to automate permanent file deletion, you can opt for a utility named trash. This nice Node.js library moves files to the trash instead of instant deletion.

// Install with `yarn add trash`

// Move a file to trash
const trash = require('trash');
await trash('bug-report.jpg');

There's also a trash-cli package for using the utility from command line:

yarn add trash-cli

# Usage
trash unicorn.png rainbow.png
trash '*.png' '!unicorn.png'

rm can be really harsh so having a trash utility is helpful in providing users a file deletion paradigm that they're used to.

Recent Features

  • By
    How I Stopped WordPress Comment Spam

    I love almost every part of being a tech blogger:  learning, preaching, bantering, researching.  The one part about blogging that I absolutely loathe:  dealing with SPAM comments.  For the past two years, my blog has registered 8,000+ SPAM comments per day.  PER DAY.  Bloating my database...

  • By
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

  1. Hej David, there is even a shell alternative if you prefer to stick to the tools you already have like me. Just write down this simple function

    trash () {
            mv -v $1 $HOME/.Trash
    }
    

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!