RMW(1)

🦋 rmw(1) — safe-remove utility for the command line 🦋

User Commands · bestie edition · manual name: rmw 💅

✨ NAME ✨

rmw — safe-remove utility for the command line. That’s the whole identity, no cap. 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

rmw [OPTION]... FILE...

Move FILE(s) to a WASTE directory listed in configuration file

rmw -s

rmw -u

rmw -z FILE...

Restore FILE(s) from a WASTE directory

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so bestie, rmw (ReMove to Waste) is a trashcan/recycle bin utility for the command line. It can move and restore files to and from directories specified in a configuration file, and it can also be integrated with your regular desktop trash folder (if your desktop environment uses the FreeDesktop.org Trash specification). One of the unique features of rmw is the ability to purge items from your waste (or trash) directories after x number of days. Iconic behavior, honestly. 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — show help for command line options.
• -c, --config FILE — use an alternate configuration.
• -l, --list — list waste directories, one path per line.

Add -v to also show each folder’s attributes (such as "no-add") and a list of candidate trash locations that rmw would create on other file systems when needed.

• -g[N_DAYS], --purge[=N_DAYS] — purge expired files; optional argument N_DAYS overrides the expire_age value from the configuration file (examples: -g90, --purge=90).

By default, purging is disabled (expire_age is set to 0 in the configuration file). To enable it, set the expire_age value in your config file to a value greater than 0.

You can use -vvg to see when the remaining files in the waste directories will expire. 👑

⚠️ The argument must be attached to the option, as in the examples above. If a space separates them, rmw reads N_DAYS as the name of a file to remove. 💀

To purge from a scheduled job, keep expire_age at 0 so that normal runs never purge, and let a cron job give the number of days:

30 4 * * 0 rmw -g45 >> "$HOME/.local/state/rmw-purge.log" 2>&1

See the FAQ for the full example, including log rotation: https://theimpossibleastronaut.github.io/rmw-website/faq.html#can-rmw-be-run-as-a-scheduled-job-to-purge-expired-files.

• -o, --orphaned — check for orphaned files (maintenance).

An orphan is an item in a waste directory that has no corresponding .trashinfo file, or vice versa. This option is intended primarily for developers. Orphans may happen while testing code changes or if rmw is unintentionally released with a bug.

A file that has no .trashinfo is repaired by -o alone (a new .trashinfo is created for it). Deleting the opposite kind of orphan, a .trashinfo with no matching file, is only done during a purge and requires force to be given twice, as in rmw -offg (-o -f -f -g). (see also: https://theimpossibleastronaut.github.io/rmw-website/faq.html#dot_trashinfo)

• -f, --force — allow purging of expired files.

By default, force is not required to enable the purge feature. If you would like to require it, add force_required to your config file.

• --empty — completely empty (purge) all waste directories.
• -r, -R, --recursive — option used for compatibility with rm (recursive operation is enabled by default).
• --top-level-bypass — bypass protection of top-level files (added in v0.9.0).
• -v, --verbose — increase output messages.
• -w, --warranty — display warranty.
• -V, --version — display version and license information.

🎀 RESTORING 🎀

• -z, --restore FILE(s) — to restore items, specify the path to them in the files subdirectory of a waste folder (wildcards ok).

When restoring an item, if a file or directory with the same name already exists at the destination, the item being restored will have a time/date string (formatted as _%H%M%S-%y%m%d) appended to it (e.g. foo_164353-210508).

• -s, --select — select files from list to restore.

Displays a list of items in your waste directories. You can use the left/right cursor keys to switch between waste directories. Use the space bar to select the items you wish to restore, then press enter to restore all selected items. 🌸

The list opens on the waste directory of your current filesystem. If no waste directory is on that filesystem, it opens on the first one in your list instead.

When the output is not a terminal (for example, piped to another program), rmw does not open the menu. Instead it prints the path of that waste directory, followed by the names of the items in it.

• -u, --undo-last — undo last move.

Restores files that were last rmw'ed.

• -m, --most-recent-list — list most recently rmw'ed files.

💜 CONFIGURATION 💜

Configuration is optional. With no configured WASTE folder, rmw moves each file to the trash on the file’s own filesystem: files on the home filesystem go to the FreeDesktop home trash (~/.local/share/Trash, the same trash your desktop uses), and files on other filesystems go to a trash at the top of that filesystem. These are created when first needed. ✨

Add WASTE lines only for special cases, such as keeping rmw's files separate from the desktop trash (uncomment the WASTE = $HOME/.local/share/Waste line in the generated config), a folder on removable media, or a no-add folder. Each WASTE folder must be on its own line; two WASTE folders cannot be specified on the same line.

• WASTE=/mnt/flash/.Trash-$UID, removable — when using the removable attribute, you must also manually create the directory.
• WASTE = /path, no-add — the "no-add" attribute tells rmw to never move files into this folder. rmw still lists it, restores files from it, and purges old files in it. This is useful for a folder you want to empty over time but no longer add to. You can combine attributes, for example "removable, no-add".
• expire_age = 45 — rmw will permanently delete files that have been in the waste (or trash) for more than 45 days.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

These variables are set by rmw's meson test suite to run the code in a controlled environment. They are not meant for normal use, and setting them yourself is strongly discouraged. See the code-testing page on the rmw website for more details. 🫶

• RMW_DISCOVERY — set to "off" to stop rmw from scanning real mount points for $topdir trash folders. Any other value (or leaving it unset) keeps discovery on.
• RMW_FAKE_YEAR — set to "true" to write the year 1999 as the deletion date, so the test suite can exercise the purge feature.
• RMW_FAKE_HOME — deprecated; it will be removed in a future release. To choose a test home, set HOME (with XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME) yourself; to control mount discovery, use RMW_DISCOVERY instead. ⚠️

🦋 FILES 🦋

On some systems, $HOME/.config and $HOME/.local/share may be replaced with $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $XDG_DATA_HOME.

• $HOME/.config/rmwrc — configuration file.
• $HOME/.local/share/rmw/purge-time — text file that stores the time of the last purge.
• $HOME/.local/share/rmw/mrl — text file containing a list of items that were last rmw'ed.

💅 NOTES 💅

rmw does not move items from one file system to another. When you rmw a file, it looks for a waste directory on the same file system. It checks the waste directories in your configuration file first. If none match, it uses the trash for that file system, as described by the FreeDesktop.org Trash specification: the home trash (~/.local/share/Trash) for files on the home file system, or a trash at the top of the file system (for example, "/mnt/disk/.Trash-1000") for other file systems. If one already exists, rmw uses it; if not, rmw creates it. (Moves between btrfs or bcachefs subvolumes are the exception; see BTRFS AND BCACHEFS below.) 👑

rmw does not create a trash directory on file systems that are not meant to hold one, such as temporary (tmpfs) or network file systems. On those, if no configured waste directory matches, rmw refuses to remove the file, the same way desktop file managers do. A trash directory that already exists on such a file system is still used.

Because the default home trash is the same one your desktop uses, enabling purging (an expire_age greater than 0) lets rmw permanently delete old items that your file manager placed in the trash too, not only items removed with rmw. Purging is off by default.

🌸 DESKTOP INTEGRATION 🌸

Items are moved to the trash in the same manner as the "move to trash" option in your desktop file manager. By default rmw uses the same trash your desktop uses (the FreeDesktop home trash, ~/.local/share/Trash), so an item removed with rmw appears in your desktop trash and can be restored from either one. ✨

To keep rmw's files separate from the desktop trash instead, uncomment this line in your configuration file:

WASTE = $HOME/.local/share/Waste

(On macOS rmw does not integrate with the system trash; the default ~/.local/share/Trash is used.)

When rmw'ing an item, if a file or directory with the same name already exists in the waste (or trash) directory, it will not be overwritten; instead, the current file being rmw'ed will have a time/date string (formatted as _%H%M%S-%y%m%d) appended to it (e.g. foo_164353-210508).

🍓 REMOVABLE MEDIA 🍓

The first time rmw is run, it will create a configuration file. Waste directories will be created automatically (Except for when the ',removable' option is used; see below) e.g., if $HOME/.local/share/Waste is uncommented in the config file, these two directories will be created:

$HOME/.local/share/Waste/files
$HOME/.local/share/Waste/info

If a WASTE directory is on removable media, you may append ',removable'. In that case, rmw will not try to create it; it must be initially created manually. When rmw runs, it will check to see if the directory exists (which means the removable media containing the directory is currently mounted). If rmw can’t find the directory, it is assumed the media containing the directory isn’t mounted and that directory will not be used for the current run of rmw.

With the media mounted, once you manually create the waste directory for that device (e.g. "/mnt/flash/.Trash-$UID") and run rmw, it will automatically create the two required child directories "files" and "info". 🧚

🌈 BTRFS AND BCACHEFS 🌈

okay so this part is genuinely iconic — rmw can move files across subvolumes on btrfs and bcachefs filesystems. 💅

here's the tea though: the kernel reports subvolumes with different device numbers, so a cross-subvolume move would normally just flop and fail with a cross-device error 😭 but rmw detects that situation and instead does a reflink clone-then-delete, which keeps the trash semantics exactly how you'd expect them. no cap, that's the whole vibe. ✨

to actually use this feature, define a WASTE directory on the destination subvolume in your configuration file. and if your waste directory happens to live on a different subvolume than the files you want to remove? rmw handles the move transparently — you don't gotta do anything extra. 🫶

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

🎀 RESTORING

bestie these are the literal commands, copy them exactly:

rmw -z ~/.local/share/Waste/files/foo
rmw -z ~/.local/share/Waste/files/bars*

that's it. that's the whole recipe. 🌸

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

• Project Manager: Andy Alt
• The RMW team: see AUTHORS.md

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💀 REPORTING BUGS 💀

found something cursed? report bugs to ⟨https://github.com/theimpossibleastronaut/rmw/issues⟩. the maintainers wanna know, fr fr. 🐛

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright © 2012-2026 Andy Alt

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later ⟨https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html⟩. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. (that's the legally-required dramatic part, don't skip it 🙈)

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• mv(1)
• rm(1)
• rmdir(1)

Full documentation at: ⟨https://theimpossibleastronaut.github.io/rmw-website/⟩

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okay and that's a wrap!! this was rmw version 0.10.0, dated July 2026 — page RMW(1), serving main character energy since forever. go forth and delete things responsibly, bestie 💅✨🎀