How to restore a file from the trash using command line?
Obviously you can use restore-trash command from the trash-cli package, but this wouldn't list all files inside the trash.
Moreover what about files moved to trash with root permission?
Those are files in trash:
Now using restore-trash command:
only 4 files are shown.
If you run trash-restore from within a directory, It will only show the trashed files and directories that were trashed from the current directory or its sub-directories
As it appears, you are running trash-restore from your home directory. So, it is only showing files and directories that were trashed from your home directory or its sub-directories.
To restore files trashed from another directory, for example /var, you would need to cd to the /var directory first and then run trash-restore from there.
Alternatively, you can specify the system root directory / after trash-restore like so trash-restore / to make it show all trashed files and directories originating from anywhere in the system.
Notice:
The tool is called trash-restore since 2019 (instead of restore-trash previously) under the latest trash-cli package.
For listing all files in the trash,
ls -l .local/share/Trash/files/
sudo ls -l /root/.local//share/Trash/files/
should do under Ubuntu (in my case: MATE 16.04). I found those paths here. It also has further explanations of what is in the other folders next to files/. In case you want to code your own restore routine, that should help...
Not sure what you are up to (writing tests to verify delete-to-trash?, ...) but looking at the specific source of the trash npm module (js) might give further insight.
UPDATE:
actually, finding the right location of a trashed file can get a whole lot more complicated, e.g. when it's not a delete from /home/someuser/... but other places on same partition (say /usr/share/...) or elsewhere (mounted drives, incl. removables...)
This should be the spec to read: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/trash-spec/trashspec-1.0.html
The trash package mentioned above relies on xdg-trashdir to find the right path.
..../local//share/... (with double //), not ..../local/share/... (with single /)? Or is that just a typo?
– Cadoiz
May 16 '23 at 07:04
Each volume has it's own trash. While nautilus or nemo shows the trash combined for all mounted volumes, restore-trash shows only the files from the volume you're currently in, unlike trash-list, which shows the trash for all mounted volumes.
restore-trashusingsudoor checking outsudo trash-listare you looking for something else? – Ravexina Aug 12 '17 at 13:14sudo, and remove them usingsudo... – Ravexina Aug 12 '17 at 13:55sudo restore-trashoutput? I guess it's related to programs behaving differently and not following the standards ... – Ravexina Aug 12 '17 at 14:07rm– Maythux Aug 12 '17 at 14:10rmdelete the file permanently ? usetrashortrash-putorgvfs-trashinstead ofrm. – Ravexina Aug 12 '17 at 14:15restore-trash:restore-trash: command not found. As the highest answer points out, this is because is calledtrash-restoresince 2019. – Cadoiz May 16 '23 at 07:02