Posted on 08/27/2011 6:47:03 PM PDT by library user
I am using a family member's Mac this weekend.
I have a bunch of stuff I moved to the trash that I want to delete.
However, they already had their own stuff already located in the trash.
So, both of our junk is in the same trash.
With Windows, it's very simple to delete specific files from the Recycle bin.
Is it even possible to delete only specific files from the trash on a Mac?
My googling tells me this is not possible. For real?
What the Mac forums tells me is this:
Create a new folder on the desktop to first separate their junk in the trash (which I don't want to delete, in case they need it back, at some point) from my junk (which I DO want to delete).
If you are a Mac user, you don't have the option to delete specific files from the trash, without first having to move files to a different location?
This is a serious question, as you would think you could just hold down the Control button on the Mac keyboard to delete select files from the trash. But, this doesn't seem to do the trick.
Thanks for any tips.
rm -rf / is a recursive deletion starting at the root directory. Very damaging when run as a user, completely destructive if run as root user. Unix doesn’t ask “Are you sure?” Unix just does it. Unix is not for the uninitiated.
That's fine. You demo.
/johnny
Fine with me. Stick your head out.
Nope, it's a ReMove command. The -r makes it recursive (so it goes up and down the hills).
fdisk is the reformatting command. And they are fairly serious about that. If you want file system afterward, you have to mkfs.
/johnny
We don't play that here.
We do, however, hoo-rah youngsters into peeing on the electric fence. Just once, mind you, and we sleep with one eye open afterwards. But it's a big fine bunch of 'lived through that and a war' boys that will either kill me when they get a chance or carry my box and cry when I get laid in the ground.
/johnny
Second, don't download porn pics on family member's computer ;-)
There are also things that are easy to do in a Mac but harder in Windows. Both have their pros and cons, but I can't honestly say that I've ever had to do what you are asking to do. Do you actually keep stuff in the Trash that you don't want to delete? Isn't that sort of like storing food that you might want to eat in your kitchen garbage can? Do you normally throw things that you want to keep into garbage cans?
And for the record, if there are specific files I want to delete without touching the Trash, I'll open up a Terminal window and delete them from the command line. Once they are in the Trash, the Mac assumes that it's garbage that you actually want to throw away.
Trashing someone's computer is not funny. What you are proposing is irresponsible and unethical.
Are you sure? Deleting a file from the Trash window should send the file back to the folder where it came. Please check the original folder and see if the file has returned there.
It happens once in a lifetime, if you have smart nephews. Lessons, serious life lessons are learned. And, if everybody lives through it, you can count on the kid to be much wiser.
/johnny
In Unix/Linux/Mac land the "rm" is short for remove. The "-" denotes a switch and the letters that follow define the switch. In this case, "r" is for recursive. The "f" is for force. The last bit is "/" which denotes the root directory as the starting place. The "*" means ALL.
Ergo, rm -rf /* would be a command with switches that will force a removal of all files recursively from the root directory on down. Total destruction. Especially in Unix/Linux/Mac lands. In Winders, files are not deleted like this. They are marked for deletion and aren't actually, totally gone until the sectors used to store them are overwritten.
Geez...where do these people come from? Whatever happened to personal responsibility and self determination?
It is not necessary to stand in front of a car moving at 60 M.P.H. to learn that this is a bad thing to do. What you are suggesting is unethical.
It happens once in a lifetime, if you have smart nephews. Lessons, serious life lessons are learned. And, if everybody lives through it, you can count on the kid to be much wiser.
There is good pedagogy and bad pedagogy. No ethical teacher would tell a student to cut off his arm with a chain saw in order to teach him that it is painful and a stupid idea to cut off his arm with a chain saw.
But the Gods of the copy-book will get their own justice, in time./johnny
Two step process:
1) Learn Chinese
2) Ask the factory
Why pay so much for a computer which isn’t even made here?
Slick, if you got nephews dumb enough to do that, you need to take crowbar and separate your sister and brother.
My kids would look at me and laugh if I suggested anything to do with chain saw. Your mileage may vary, depending on the intellect of your relatives.
/johnny
True. An ethical one would actually be the one wielding the chainsaw.
I got my arm cut off in shop class, and it grew back like a starfish.
Telling someone to delete all the files on their computer is unethical. It is unnecessary to actually do that to know it's a very bad idea.
Unfortunately, files on computers don't grow back as easily as arms.
So, that was unethical? How about telling you to urinate up a rope or fornicate with a fat chick. You gonna do that cause I said so? Didn't think so.
Get over your ethical, suffering self.
And if you didn't have porn on your hard disk, you wouldn't care if you had to re-load the OS, yet again.
/johnny
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