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Is there any way to configure Ubuntu to permanently delete files from trash after a certain amount of time?

I don't get why that's not the default behavior in any major OS. I don't want to think about administrating my trash, but I don't want to accidentally delete something either. Am I the only one with that opinion?

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You might want to take a look at this question - askubuntu.com/questions/87744/… –  jokerdino Jun 1 '12 at 8:59
@jokerdino , wow, that's brilliant! I was looking for that one too. Thanks. –  Thomas Jensen Jun 2 '12 at 9:54

2 Answers 2

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Use trash-cli Install trash-cli (click image to install or run sudo apt-get install trash-cli).

Run trash-empty 30 to remove all files from trash which are older than 30 days. (You can change this number as you like.)

To automate this, add a command to Startup Applications:

enter image description here

Please note: If you use older Ubuntu versions than 12.04, the command is empty-trash!

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I don't like stuffing my startup and I rarely restart, so I ended up with a cronjob: 0 * * * * /usr/bin/trash-empty 30 –  Thomas Jensen Mar 7 at 21:20

Try with Autotrash!

Autotrash is a simple Python script comes with Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat which will purge files from your trash when they become older than a given days,purge older files to ensure a specific amount of disk space is free,etc.It uses the FreeDesktop.org Trash Info files included in the new GNOME system to find the correct files and the dates they where deleted.


  • Remove files that are older then a given number of days (autotrash -d N,where N is the number of days)
  • Purge older files to ensure a specific amount of disk space is free (autotrash --min-free=M,M is the amount of free space you want to ensure you have, in megabytes.)
  • Check for remaining disk space, and only delete if you are running out (autotrash --max-free=M,M is the amount of free space left, in megabytes.)
  • Delete regex matching files first (see –delete-frist option)

For more info,execute this in terminal:

autotrash --help

AutoTrash is already in Ubuntu 10.10′s repository,it can be installed from Ubuntu Software Center.For Ubuntu 10.04 and 9.10 user,install this from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install autotrash

Info: http://www.logfish.net/pr/autotrash/

Source: http://ubuntuguide.net/automatically-delete-files-older-than-n-days-from-trash-using-autotrash/

For a different approach and a more comprehensive guide: http://helpdeskgeek.com/linux-tips/automatically-empty-the-trash-in-ubuntu/

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Thank you. I ended up using the config "autotrash –max-free 1024 -d 30" and placing it in crontab to be run daily. –  Thomas Jensen Jun 2 '12 at 9:49

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