Move files and folders to the trash

Works on macOS (10.12+), Linux, and Windows (8+).

Note: The Linux implementation is not very good and not maintained. Help welcome. If no one steps up to help maintain it, I will eventually remove Linux support.

In contrast to fs.unlink, del, and rimraf which permanently delete files, this only moves them to the trash, which is much safer and reversible.

npm install trash

import trash from 'trash';
await trash(['*.png', '!rainbow.png']);

Returns a Promise.

Type: string | string[]

Accepts paths and glob patterns.

Type: object

Type: boolean
Default: true

Enable globbing when matching file paths.

To install the trash command, run:

npm install --global trash-cli

On macOS, macos-trash is used.
On Linux, the XDG spec is followed.
On Windows, recycle-bin is used.

Not really. The mv command isn't cross-platform and moving to trash is not just about moving the file to a "trash" directory. On all OSes you'll run into file conflicts. The user won't easily be able to restore the file. It won't work on an external drive. The trash directory location varies between Windows versions. For Linux, there's a whole spec you need to follow. On macOS, you'll lose the Put back feature.

When running as the Windows SYSTEM account or other service accounts, files are moved to that account's recycle bin (e.g., C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-18\ for SYSTEM). These files won't be visible in the normal user's recycle bin and may accumulate over time. For service contexts, consider using direct file deletion instead.

• trash-cli - CLI for this module
• empty-trash - Empty the trash
• del - Delete files and folders