[philm]

One feature I love in Mail.app is the delete trashed messages after a specified period - one week in my case. I would like a similar behaviour for the main Trash in the Finder. After, say, six months, files are properly deleted.

I like to be quite liberal in what I throw away in the Trash, but I tend to empty it only every few months, just in case. This of course means that some recently-trashed stuff is lost. I like the idea of an automatic buffer system. If you haven't needed a file in six months, you probably don't need it. This would keep the Trash relatively empty.

Can this be achieved. Applescript?

[rjenkinson]

smart folder + an applescript that moves everything to the trash?

-r.

[black bear theory]

Originally Posted by philm

One feature I love in Mail.app is the delete trashed messages after a specified period - one week in my case. I would like a similar behaviour for the main Trash in the Finder. After, say, six months, files are properly deleted.

I like to be quite liberal in what I throw away in the Trash, but I tend to empty it only every few months, just in case. This of course means that some recently-trashed stuff is lost. I like the idea of an automatic buffer system. If you haven't needed a file in six months, you probably don't need it. This would keep the Trash relatively empty.

Can this be achieved. Applescript?

i suggest compost. i like version 1.2.

[RevEvs]

1. make a applescript to empty the trash

2. use cron to have it run every 6 months.

done!

[cybergoober]

Originally Posted by RevEvs

1. make a applescript to empty the trash

2. use cron to have it run every 6 months.

done!

But then say if cron kicked it off tomorrow, it would delete files he just dropped in there today. If you re-read his original post he wants files that have been in the trash for six months to be deleted, not the trash to be emptied every six months.

Smart folder + AppleScript would probably be the way to go here.

[philm]

Originally Posted by cybergoober

But then say if cron kicked it off tomorrow, it would delete files he just dropped in there today. If you re-read his original post he wants files that have been in the trash for six months to be deleted, not the trash to be emptied every six months.

Smart folder + AppleScript would probably be the way to go here.

cybergoober: you are exactly correct, this is what I want. I will try the Smart Folder, although I might need to redirect cmd-delete to put files into this Smart Folder rather than direct to the Trash. Cheers.

[philm]

Actually, it looks like Freaky Trash Manager could be the way to go, here.

[RevEvs]

Originally Posted by cybergoober

But then say if cron kicked it off tomorrow, it would delete files he just dropped in there today. If you re-read his original post he wants files that have been in the trash for six months to be deleted, not the trash to be emptied every six months.

Smart folder + AppleScript would probably be the way to go here.

ah yes, wasnt paying attention

[Judge_Fire]

Originally Posted by philm

cybergoober: you are exactly correct, this is what I want. I will try the Smart Folder, although I might need to redirect cmd-delete to put files into this Smart Folder rather than direct to the Trash. Cheers.

I was thinking you could attach a folder script to the trash can, which re-routes files into your 'Smart Trash' folder. This way, the behavior would be universal, so that when apps move files to the trash, that works too. However, as a symptom, trash from other disk volumes would likely end up being copied into one volume.

Later, your smart folder eventually deletes the files directly, without using the trash can.

J

[jmiddel]

Downloaded Freaky Trash Manager and, it is freeeaky indeed! It does not open up in Dock or Desktop, yet when I try to trash it I get the message, complete with OS9 icon: Can't move because file is open. In get info the checkbox 'open in classic' is checked and cannot be unchecked. Unlocking in permissions useless. I take it that this is a classic app, but I have not used classic in years so this seems only for classic users. I hope it disappears at the next, hopefully far in the future, reboot!

[ScotHamedia]

You could do this with a one line find command in the terminal:
find ~/.Trash/ -mtime 180 -ok rm -f {} ';'

finds all files in your trash older than 180 days, and deleted them

Add this to your local crontab:
mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
pico -w mycrontab

Enter into pico the following:
0 1 * * * find ~/.Trash/ -mtime 180 -ok rm -f {} ';' > /dev/null 2>&1

Load the crontab:
crontab mycrontab

That should be all you need to do.