TIP: free space wasted by root trash

[muskratmx]

there is no such directory .Trash in Root

You are correct! If you haven't trashed anything as "Root" yet. The frist time you trash an item as root it will be created. Mind you "trash" not delete as root.

[furytheory]

I was having a similar problem deleting my trash, it kept telling me that I didn't have permission to delete this one directory "os". So I found this thread and was trying to enter the commands, but there was no trash at the .nautilus directory, so here is what I did:
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11:25:54[dan:/root]$ locate Trash
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/files
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/info
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/files/os
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/info/os.trashinfo
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/info/s5030787.jpg.trashinfo
/home/dan/.local/share/Trash/info/s5030788.jpg.trashinfo
... there was more ...
... a whole lot more ...
11:26:05[dan:/root]$ cd /home/dan/.local/share/Trash
11:34:53[dan:~/.local/share/Trash]$ ls -la
total 24
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 dan dan 4096 2009-01-18 13:50 ..
drwx------ 2 dan dan 4096 2009-01-19 11:13 files
drwx------ 2 dan dan 12288 2009-01-19 11:14 info
11:35:07[dan:~/.local/share/Trash]$ cd files/
11:35:22[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/files]$ ls -la
drwx------ 2 dan dan 4096 2009-01-19 11:13 .
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 ..
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 os
11:35:25[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/files]$ sudo rm -vR os
Password:
removed directory: `os'
... any other files within directory ...
... just in case I missed any ...
... -R recursive attribute used ...
11:40:00[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/files]$ cd ./../info
11:40:30[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/info]$ ls -la
drwx------ 2 dan dan 4096 2009-01-19 11:13 .
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 ..
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 s5030787.jpg.trashinfo
drwx------ 4 dan dan 4096 2008-12-03 20:24 s5030788.jpg.trashinfo
... a whole bunch more ...
11:41:20[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/info]$ sudo rm -vR s*.j*.tr*
Password:
removed file: s5030787.jpg.trashinfo
removed file: s5030788.jpg.trashinfo
... lotsa files that begin with s ...
... have a "j" behind the first dot ...
... and have "tr" after the second dot ...
11:41:20[dan:~/.local/share/Trash/info]$

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So remember:
Find the files with 'locate';
Change the directory with 'cd' + /path/to/desired/file/;
List the contents of file with attributes with 'ls -la';
Unless you are already root, you will use sudo after the '$';
Determine the files and directories that need to be deleted;
-- If you need to delete a whole directory you will need to use 'rm -vR [dir name]';
-- If you need to delete a file you will use 'rm -v [path/to/file]';
The -v attribute will show you all files that you told the system work with;
The -R attribute will remove all of the files within the directory first;
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Anyway, I hope this solution works for those that the other solution didn't. I realize that there are faster ways to do what I did, but it's better to learn from square one.
This is a great site. Thank you everyone for all of your tips!! Keep up the good work!!

[pneaveill]

I was having a similar problem deleting my trash, it kept telling me that I didn't have permission to delete this one directory "os". So I found this thread and was trying to enter the commands, but there was no trash at the .nautilus directory, so here is what I did:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11:25:54[dan:/root]$ locate Trash
~/.local/share/Trash/*

Anyway, I hope this solution works for those that the other solution didn't. I realize that there are faster ways to do what I did, but it's better to learn from square one.
This is a great site. Thank you everyone for all of your tips!! Keep up the good work!!

Sorry for the edit of you post and the delay in response.

Often the best option on the newer ubuntu releases is as follows

sudo rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/*

[thatsmyboy]

saved me big headaches with this! thanks for posting.

I was having a similar problem deleting my trash, it kept telling me that I didn't have permission to delete this one directory "os". So I found this thread and was trying to enter the commands, but there was no trash at the .nautilus directory, so here is what I did:
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[FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=DimGray]11:25:54[dan:/root]$ locate Trash

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, I hope this solution works for those that the other solution didn't. I realize that there are faster ways to do what I did, but it's better to learn from square one.
This is a great site. Thank you everyone for all of your tips!! Keep up the good work!!