The Code

Let's start with this variant, which I found as the result of a Google search:

% more ~/bin/trash
#!/bin/sh
# script to send removed files to trash directory
mv $1 ~/.trash/

You should recognize the path to the Bourne shell, the comment, and the mv command. Let's take a look at that $1. This is known as a positional parameter and specifically refers to the first parameter of the trash command. Since the mv commands takes filenames as parameters, the command:

mv $1 ~/.trash/

is really saying, mv the first filename, whatever it happens to be, to a directory called .trash in the user's home directory (represented by the shell shortcut of ~). This move operation is our custom "recycle."

Before this script can do anything, it must be set as executable:

% chmod +x ~/bin/trash

And I must create that trash directory for it to use:

% mkdir ~/.trash

Note that I've chosen to create a hidden trash directory; any file or directory that begins with the . character is hidden from normal listings. This really only reduces clutter, though, as you can see these files by passing the -a switch to ls. If you also include the F switch, directory names will end with a /:

% ls -aF ~
.cshrc    .history    .trash/
bin/      images/     myfile