Partially empty trash?

[beaster]

Hi folks-

I'm wondering if there's a way to empty only some of the files in the trash from the GUI. Basically I'd like to be able to keep the files I've deleted in, say, the last month, but empty the rest. From the command line I'd probably try something like:

$ find ~/.Trash -ctime 30 -exec rm {} \;

but it'd be easier to just open Trash in Finder, sort by date moved to Trash, and select the ones I want to empty. Anybody know a good hack for this?

Thanks,
Sean

 

[mkrishnan]

If I understand you correctly, you don't need a hack. Once you've highlighted the items you want to delete, hit Option-Shift-Delete. You will then get a requester which says something like, "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these items?" And away you go.

 

[beaster]

If I understand you correctly, you don't need a hack. Once you've highlighted the items you want to delete, hit Option-Shift-Delete. You will then get a requester which says something like, "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these items?" And away you go.

Hmm... that didn't work for me - when I tried to highlight a subset of files and hit Option-Shift-Delete, nothing happened (this is Panther 10.3.7 BTW). In fact I tried just about every combo of shift/ctrl/option/alt + del with no results.

But assuming I can find the right key combo to delete a subset of highlighted Trash files, I still have the problem of selecting the files based on the date I moved them to the trash, as opposed to create/modified date. I'm still converting over from the Windows world, but one nice feature of the Recycle Bin is the "Date Deleted" column. With that column, I can just open the Recycle Bin, sort by date deleted and whack what I want.

Thanks,
Sean

 

[mkrishnan]

Sorry -- *APPLE*-shift-delete. I'm still carrying around Windows remnants too, so I always seem to confuse Apple and Option when I write them out.

The date deleted part is a good point. And I don't have an answer for that.

 

[beaster]

Sorry -- *APPLE*-shift-delete. I'm still carrying around Windows remnants too, so I always seem to confuse Apple and Option when I write them out.

The date deleted part is a good point. And I don't have an answer for that.

Thanks - I'll try the Apple key combo when I'm back at home tonight. I suppose for the date deleted bit I'll have to find the right combo of -ctime or -atime or whatever in the UNIX find command and go that route. Just hoping to be able to do it from the GUI for convenience - esp. in situations where I want to get rid of all but one or two files older than 30 days, etc.

Thanks,
Sean