Empty Trash Bin via Objective-C/Cocoa

Question

I was wondering if there is a way to programmatically empty the contents of the trash bin. I'm currently deleting files that are located there using:

    NSFileManager *manager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    [manager removeItemAtPath:fileToDelete error:nil];

However, after I use this operation, every time I drag a file to the trash, I am prompted with the message:

Are you sure you want to delete “xxxxxx.xxx”?This item will be deleted immediately. You can’t undo this action.

This lasts until I either log out or sudo rm -rf the trash bin.

Thanks!

Why do you need to do this? The Trash is the user's realm and your app shouldn't really be messing with it. — Rob Keniger, Mar 17 '11 at 11:15

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '11 at 03:23

5

You could try using AppleScript to do it:

NSString* appleScriptString = @"tell application \"Finder\"\n"
                              @"if length of (items in the trash as string) is 0 then return\n"
                              @"empty trash\n"
                              @"repeat until (count items of trash) = 0\n"
                              @"delay 1\n"
                              @"end repeat\n"
                              @"end tell";
NSAppleScript* emptyTrashScript = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:appleScriptString];

[emptyTrashScript executeAndReturnError:nil];
[emptyTrashScript release];

answered Mar 17 '11 at 03:23

David

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thanks! is there a way to do this one file at a time? i'm deleting files individually in a callback method, and am performing checks on each one, deleting it, and then moving on to the next. – minimalpop Mar 17 '11 at 03:26
Are they already in the trash? You can't empty the trash one file at a time. However, you could probably do your checks, delete the files, and then empty the trash after you're done processing. Alternatively, you could loop over the files in the trash and move the ones you don't want to delete out of the trash, but that's a little counterproductive. – David Mar 17 '11 at 04:15

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 12 '16 at 23:25

You can put stuff in the trash with NSWorkspace, however deleting the trash is kind of a no no for programs so you aren't going to find an API. So your best bet is using the ScriptBridge.

Add ScriptingBridge.framework to your build target, and generate a header file for Finder using:

sdef /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/ | sdp -fh --basename Finder

Then you can ask Finder to prompt the user to empty the trash:

#import "Finder.h"

FinderApplication *finder = [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.Finder"];

// activate finder
[finder activate];

// wait a moment (activate is not instant), then present alert message
dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, (int64_t)(0.1 * NSEC_PER_SEC)), dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
  [finder emptySecurity:security];
});

See the Scripting Bridge documentation for more details.

As of Xcode 7.3, if you attempt this with Swift you will get linker errors trying to find classes defined in Finder.h. So you'll have to create an Objective-C wrapper.

Yeah, you'll need an scripting entitlement if your app is sandboxed. — jbtule, May 08 '13 at 17:58
But, then again, if your app is sandboxed, why does it need to empty the trash? Begs the question. — jbtule, May 08 '13 at 18:00

Empty Trash Bin via Objective-C/Cocoa

2 Answers2