rtrash shares the trash with trash-cli, gtrash, GNOME’s gio trash and the desktop file managers built on it. This page records what matches and what differs. The Linux rows come from live runs against trash-cli 0.26.9.29, gtrash and gio 2.84 on one shared trash. CI repeats the cross-restore rows on every push with scripts/interop-smoke.sh, in all sixteen pairings.

Shared trash

Behaviour	rtrash	trash-cli	gtrash	gio trash
Home trash $XDG_DATA_HOME/Trash	yes	yes	yes	yes
Volume trash .Trash/$uid and .Trash-$uid	yes	yes	yes	yes
Reads entries the others wrote	yes	yes	yes	yes
Names with spaces, % and Unicode	yes	yes	yes	yes
Second item with the same name	name_1	name_1	name.2	name.2
Restores items the others trashed	yes	yes	yes	yes
Removes and empties rtrash items	yes	yes	yes	yes

Each tool reads the others’ duplicate names, so the spelling only shows in files/. gio lists and restores rtrash items (gio trash --list, gio trash --restore trash:///NAME), and rtrash restores gio items. GLib caveat: gio 2.80.0 with gvfs 1.54.4 (Ubuntu 24.04) restores any non-ASCII name escaped, so x é comes back as x \xc3\xa9, even for an item gio trashed itself, under a UTF-8 locale; x 100% comes back intact. gio 2.84 (Debian 13) and gio 2.88.0 (Ubuntu 26.04) restore both intact. The interop smoke test probes x é, x 100% and x 100% é with gio alone: when x 100% fails it leaves gio out, and when a non-ASCII probe fails the run fails, so on GLib 2.80 set RTRASH_INTEROP_NO_GIO=1. No upstream GLib or gvfs issue turned up in a search. The likely cause: the original gio trash --restore code (725984f) reads trash::orig-path with g_file_info_get_attribute_as_string(), which escapes non-ASCII bytes for display. The GLib documentation for that function now uses trash::orig-path as its example of an attribute to read as a byte string instead, which fits a fix between 2.80 and 2.84.

trash-cli command lines

Linked as trash-put, trash-list, trash-empty, trash-restore and trash-rm, rtrash takes a trash-cli command line as is.

trash-cli	rtrash under the trash-* name
--trash-dir DIR (two words)	same; --trash-dir=DIR works too
--print-completion bash or zsh	same; tcsh has no script (exit 2)
zsh matcher-list (trash-cli #363)	restore and rm complete trashed paths (and names) through compadd, so matcher-list applies; all six scripts complete them
trash-put exit 74 on a failure	same
trash-list --volumes	same
trash-list --trash-dirs	same
trash-list --all-users	same rows; rtrash list adds an owner column
trash-list --size	same SIZE PATH rows, size in bytes
trash-list --files	same DATE PATH -> FILE rows
trash-list stderr per bad record	same Parse Error: and [Errno N] lines; a hint counts the rest
trash-empty DAYS, -f	same; DAYS also takes an age such as 2h
trash-empty -i	same prompt, then empties
trash-empty --all-users	same
unscoped trash-empty (no DAYS)	asks or refuses unless every item came from the latest put; --all skips the guard; on Windows too, by the last-put record
trash-restore (current dir)	same scope and “No files trashed” message
trash-restore PATH	same: the item at PATH and items from under it
trash-restore --sort date/path/none	same
trash-restore --overwrite	same
trash-rm PATTERN	same; no match exits 0

On a terminal, trash-restore and trash-empty open the rtrash browser; --plain keeps the numbered prompt. rtrash restore with no PATH offers every item, and a PATH must match exactly; only the trash-restore name narrows to the current directory.

Beyond trash-cli and gtrash

These exist only in rtrash: rm(1) flags on put, undo of the last put run, size budgets (empty --max-size), du and reap, --json on every listing, and the restore conflict policies (--conflict=rename|skip), which restore --dry-run previews. A read-only home trash fails put up front with one clear reason, since it has no fallback; trash-cli fails each item with a bare error.

trashy patterns

trashy takes its patterns as plain arguments to restore and empty, read as regular expressions unless -m (--match) names another kind. In rtrash a flag names the kind:

trashy	rtrash
trashy restore PATTERN	rtrash restore --regex=PATTERN
trashy restore --match=glob P	rtrash restore --glob=P
trashy restore -m substring P	rtrash restore -m substring P
trashy restore -m exact P	rtrash restore -m exact P
trashy empty PATTERN	rtrash rm --regex PATTERN
trashy empty --match=glob P	rtrash rm P (globs are the default)
trashy empty -m substring P	rtrash rm -m substring P
trashy empty -m exact P	rtrash rm -m exact P

A regex for rm searches the whole original path, on the FreeDesktop, Finder and Windows trashes alike. One that matches every path (such as .*) needs --force, as * does. restore -m and rm -m with substring or exact read the text against the original path as trashy does; only the default differs (glob here, regex in trashy).

macOS

Behaviour	rtrash	Finder
Plain rtrash put	Finder Trash ~/.Trash, through Finder	yes
Put Back after a plain put	yes; Finder records it	yes
Plain list, restore, empty	Finder Trash, by Put Back location	yes
list --glob/--regex/--name/--cwd-only	same matchers as restore, on the Finder Trash and Windows too	no
put --dry-run	every check, nothing moves (Windows too)	no
bare list PATTERN, restore '*.log'	substring or glob, like gtrash find	no
list --format=TEMPLATE	fields {date} {path} {name} {size} …, raw bytes, \0 rows; Finder and Windows too	no
empty -v	one removed ORIGINAL line per item, every backend	no
WSL: /mnt/c files to the Recycle Bin	opt-in, RTRASH_WSL_RECYCLE=1	no
WSL: list, restore and delete Recycle Bin items	rtrash wsl list [--json|--format=T] [MATCH], restore PATH (completes recycled paths), rm MATCH (completes recycled paths and names), empty [DAYS] (guarded)	no
restore --batch=ID (or last)	one put run as a unit (same as undo)	no
FreeDesktop home trash	RTRASH_MACOS_TRASH=freedesktop, macos.trash or a --trash-dir pin	no
undo, status, trash-stats, restore browser	Finder Trash; undo from a put-run log	n/a
Symbolic links	move in as themselves, without Put Back	follows
Volume trash /Volumes/X/.Trashes/UID	plain commands, as Finder; put there for items on the drive	yes
Permanent delete (rm PATTERN)	Finder trashes, by Put Back path or name	no
Permanent delete of one put run (rm --batch=ID, or last)	Finder trashes, by the put log; Windows: last only	no
Composed vs decomposed names (NFC/NFD)	match alike in list, restore, rm and undo; restore –name/–glob/–regex on every trash	n/a

Age filters count from the move into the trash and size filters from disk usage; restore takes --name, --glob, --regex, --latest and --to. trash-stats --total and --history read a total and history per Finder trash kept under $XDG_STATE_HOME/rtrash/finder-totals: put, rm, empty, restore and undo carry a current total, inodes included, by the items they move; a change made outside rtrash marks the total stale until --measure. empty --max-size and --prune trim the Finder trashes together, by disk usage. RTRASH_MAX_SIZE and policy.max_size trim each Finder trash a put used, sparing what that put moved. empty --until-free and reap --purge-trash empty the oldest Finder items first on a short file system, since a put there goes to the Finder Trash. empty --dangling needs FreeDesktop records, so on the Finder Trash it is refused with a hint. CI runs plain put, list, restore and empty on a real macOS runner against Finder.