From: Rudolf Polzer Date: 2002-12-08T21:50:24+09:00 Subject: Re: Thank God for backups Scripsit ille David Garamond : > Jeremy Henty wrote: > >> ... it's amazing to see that over the years the unix CLI hasn't got > >>a good replacement for "rm" that does trash-can-thingy > > > > http://www.m-arriaga.net/software/libtrash/ > > > > "This is the homepage of libtrash, a shared library which, when > > preloaded, implements a trash can under GNU/Linux." > > cool. thanks for the link. i do remember vaguely that there are a couple > of libraries that do trash can/recycle bin. > > however, i believe the safest approach is to replace (=remove, > =deprecate, =discourage/forbid usage) "/bin/rm" altogether, and educate > users to use something else like, say, "/bin/del", or "/bin/erase" > (which is the safer alternative). let's keep /bin/rm as it is: the > dangerous, unforgiving, destructive file deletion command. sysadmins or > users might also want to remove it from the system. This breaks most Makefiles. Some of them even don't work if the variable RM is set accordingly. The LD_PRELOAD approach has one disadvantage: if some external tool removes temporary files, they are also recycled. Even if you exclude /tmp, it's not always what you want. If a Makefile or shell script uses rm, it's normally OK. That's why I would call such a script 'recycle'. Personally I call it with that name. Currently in my .bashrc: alias rm='echo "Use \"recycle\" instead."; echo >/dev/null' Aliasing it away is OK since it doesn't break existing scripts. | bash$ recycle --help | Usage: | recycle [-rm] filename... moves files or directories out of the way | recycle -ls directory lists deleted files in a directory | recycle -lsv directory verbosely | recycle -lsa directory lists all deleted files | recycle -lsav directory verbosely | recycle -un filename... undeletes a file or directory | recycle -9 filename... deletes files | recycle -9r filename... deletes directories | recycle -cl directory removes a directory from the trash bin | recycle -cla directory empties the trash bin | | In most cases, recycle can be used as a replacement of rm. [...] -- Du fingst mit Einem heimlich an, Bald kommen ihrer mehre dran, Und wenn dich erst ein Dutzend hat, So hat dich auch die ganze Stadt.