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!

Answer 1

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.

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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.