gtrash

Featureful trash CLI manager and safe rm alternative

TLDR

Move files to trash instead of deleting

$ gtrash put [path/to/file1] [path/to/file2]

List files in the trash

$ gtrash find

Restore files interactively with a TUI

$ gtrash restore

Permanently delete files matching a pattern from trash

$ gtrash find --rm "[pattern]"

Show trash summary with sizes

$ gtrash summary

Clean up old files from trash

$ gtrash prune --day [30]

SYNOPSIS

gtrash command [options] [arguments]

gtrash is a featureful trash CLI manager that serves as a safer alternative to rm. Instead of permanently deleting files with the unlink syscall, it moves them to the system trash using the rename syscall, enabling easy restoration. It follows the FreeDesktop.org Trash specification, making it compatible with desktop trash implementations and other tools like gio trash and trash-cli.
Key features include directory size caching for fast browsing, restoration of co-deleted files, an interactive TUI for selecting files to restore, and support for external drives with per-volume trash directories.

PARAMETERS

put

Move files to trash

find

List files in trash (supports --rm to permanently delete matches)

restore

Interactively restore files from trash using TUI

summary

Show trash size summary

prune

Remove old files from trash

--day N

Used with prune to specify age threshold in days

--rm

Used with find to permanently delete matching files

CAVEATS

Files moved to trash still consume disk space until pruned or permanently deleted. The rename syscall used for trashing only works within the same filesystem; cross-filesystem moves require copying. Permanently deleting with --rm is irreversible, similar to rm.

HISTORY

gtrash was created by umlx5h as a modern, feature-rich alternative to both rm and existing trash managers. It is written in Go and distributed as a single static binary.