betterm

Like rm, but better.

Ever accidentally deleted something? Me too. Unfortunately, if one uses the rm command it can be quite difficult to retrive lost data. betterm arose from the ashes that were once my home folder, in order to save others from similar disasters.

How it works

betterm uses mv instead of rm to delete files. It simulates moving a file or folder to the trash, so if you delete the wrong thing, it is no big deal. Simply remove it from the trash, brush off any pieces of actual garbage or those coffee grinds you should have composted, and get back to what you were doing.

Installation

Download bettrm and note the location it was downloaded to. Open terminal and run these commands. Make sure to replace /path/to/betterm with the path to bettrm

mkdir ~/shell_scripts
mv /path/to/betterm ~/shell_scripts/betterm
chmod 777  ~/shell_scripts/betterm
echo >> ~/.bash_profile; echo 'alias rm="~/shell_scripts/betterm"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

If you want betterm to work with sudo, run the following commands in terminal. Note: this will ensure that the next command after sudo is checked for an alias. It's possible that this is undesireable, so this step is up to you. The alternative is to use sudo and call betterm directly.

echo >> ~/.bash_profile; echo "alias sudo='sudo '" >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Usage

If you followed the installation guide, you should be able to use it the following ways:

rm folder_name
rm file_name
rm path
rm path/file

Please test to make sure it's installed properly by deleting something unimportant! I recommend trying this:

echo test >> test.txt
rm test.txt

If installed correctly, you should see output informing you that betterm was used.

License

MIT