resrm is a safe, drop-in replacement for the Linux rm command with undo/restore support.
It moves files to a per-user trash instead of permanently deleting them, while still allowing full sudo support for root-owned files.

Features

Move files and directories to a Trash folder instead of permanent deletion
Restore deleted files by short ID or exact basename
Empty trash safely
Supports -r, -f, -i, --skip-trash options
Works with sudo for root-owned files
Automatically prunes Trash entries older than $RESRM_TRASH_LIFE days (default 7, minimum 1)

Note: if you need immediate deletion, use the regular rm command instead.

Configuration

To control how long trashed files are kept, add this line to your shell configuration (e.g. ~/.bashrc):

export RESRM_TRASH_LIFE=10

Installation

NOTE: To use resrm with sudo, the path to resrm must be in the $PATH seen by root.
Either:

install resrm as root (preferred), or
add the path to resrm to the secure_path parameter in /etc/sudoers. For example, where /home/user/.local/bin is where resrm is:

Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/home/user/.local/bin"

Install via PyPI (preferred):

pip install resrm

Or clone the repo and install locally:

git clone https://github.com/mdaleo404/resrm.git
cd resrm/
poetry install

Usage

# Move files to trash
resrm file1 file2

# Recursive remove of a directory
resrm -r mydir

# Force remove (ignore nonexistent)
resrm -f file

# Interactive remove
resrm -i file

# Permanent delete (bypass trash)
resrm --skip-trash file

# List trash entries
resrm -l

# Restore a file by ID or basename
resrm --restore <id|name>

# Empty the trash permanently
resrm --empty

Trash Location

Normal users: ~/.local/share/resrm/files

Root user: /root/.local/share/resrm/files