Linux-UnixRecycleBin

Table of Contents

• About
• Getting Started
• Usage

About

This is a little project of mine that I created to stop the fear you get from accidentally recursively deleting your directory, by creating something like a Windows recycle bin, where you move all your files which could then be deleted at a later time. It does this by using an alias it creates called bin to move your file into the recycle bin.

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine. For usage, see how to use section.

Installing

1. Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/RAvgCoder/Linux-UnixRecycleBin.git

2. In the directory, run the __create_bin.sh script.

./__create_bin.sh

3. Run this command on your terminal to finalize changes

source ~/.profile

4. Run bin -h to create the recycle bin on your home directory named __RECYCLE_BIN and show helpfull flags

5. Finally, enjoy the joy of never having to accidentally delete your files again.

Usage

The bin alias can be used like the mv command, the only difference being that it does not take in a destination folder, as it always goes to the recycle bin.

Example to move to the recycle bin.

bin folders file other_stuf

Some extra flags have been added to make it easier to use, these are the list of supported ones. Because the bin alias is built around the mv command, its flags are supported too.

Flags	Description
-h	Brings up a help menu for only the bin command
--help	Brings up a help menu for both the bin and mv command
-c	Clears the recycle bin
-cF	Clears the recycle bin for files that require a force removal equivalent to rm -rf
-s	Shows the content of the recycle bin

Some flag usage examples

To clear the bin

bin -c

To get help for only bin

bin -h

To show the contents of the recycle bin

bin -c

Important Notes

1. This program creates files on your computer in order to function properly, which may configuration files, and other data necessary for the program's operation. Please be aware of this before installing the program. The directories created are

• A .profile and or .bashrc file if it is not alredy on your machine. This helps the alias run when the machine is booted
• A .bash_aliases file if not already present which would store the alias comand it self you can change the mapping from here
• The .__aliaseSymbols direcory created in the home directory to store all necesary scipts needed to run the alias
• A man_Recycle_bin.sh and an alias_Recycle_bin.sh which contain the manual for the command and the scipt for the command respectively. This is located in the .__aliaseSymbols direcory, created above.

2. Due to Unix's unique methods of handling files, putting anything in the __RECYCLE_BIN that already exists wouldn't be possible. So, I append the time format of YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS to the file being deleted to allow for the deletion of files. For example given an empty bin, after deleting a folder called one, the content of our bin would give.

one

If we delete two more with the same name it gives us

one
one-2023-04-29_21:15:02
one-2023-04-29_21:19:21

This property can be changed in the ~/.__aliaseSymbols/alias_Recycle_bin.sh file

License